DUers, At What Age Did You Become Politically Minded and Why?

[ProudLib72]

I'm curious to see if it's age, event, or a combination of both that turns people on to politics. Maybe there is also a nurture component? So if you can include how old you were (roughly), any significant events that happened, whether or not your parents followed politics and encouraged your involvement.

I'll go first.

I was in my late 20s/early 30s. 9/11 started it, but Iraq really got me involved. My parents were always aware of politics, but I don't recall them really discussing politics with me.

[malaise]

1. Very very early

It was the coronation of the current queen of England. My father's oldest sister ridiculed the celebrations - I wasn't four yet. I laughed with her and became an anti-colonial that day. She was my favorite aunt - a wonderful lady. She never went near a religious building unless there was a wedding or a funeral but every Friday she made a huge pot of soup and baked bread. Every beggar near her home knew where to find a meal.

I still miss her.

[ProudLib72]

9. So now we know where that anti-royal sentiment came from

I wish I had had an aunt like yours growing up! She sounds great.

[malaise]

36. Yes indeed

She was a treasure - Happy Holidays

[TheBlackAdder]

80. Same here, around 6-8. My dad was an advocate for anyone downtrodden or wronged by the system.

[malaise]

86. What I find amazing is that my aunt had no influence on most of my siblings

[Alice11111]

155. Fuunt, my bro and I grew up together, he is RW and I am Left.

[malaise]

164. Yep siblings canbe very different - none of mine are RWs but

at the end of the day, what's the difference between neo-cons and RWs.

[Alice11111]

191. Not much dif. It probably isn't worth nuanced distinctions.

[TEB]

134. Your aunt is a wonderful person

[malaise]

139. She was

She died at 85. Happy Holidays.

[TEB]

140. Happy holidays

[crazycatlady]

2. I was interested in politics as a kid

I remember debating on behalf of Michael Dukakis in my school's debate in 3rd grade, and later being the lone Democrat in my homeroom in 7th.

As an adult I was 24-- I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 and it woke me up. I've worked in politics since 29 (2009).

[ProudLib72]

42. I remember in the fourth or fifth grade I had to do a report on a president

I was assigned Carter. After reading about him and all he had done, I could not understand why the other kids in my class laughed at him. That didn't convince me to become political, but I did learn that a lot of people are quite happy to jump on the bandwagon and disparage someone without considering all the facts.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. mid 20s, in grad school, when Reagan was elected. why? Because he was so obviously

fake - and everything he stood for was the opposite of what I stood for.

[sagesnow]

151. Me too.

I was in my 20's in College first learning about David Stockman and trickle down economics. Also, I remember the Republican recession it ushered in. Living in Colorado at the time and just scraping by. Seems like we are on a roller coaster and heading that way again.

[vsrazdem]

4. Age 16, Viet Nam War.

Also my parents were very politically educated and we would have very heated discussions regarding politics growing up.

[sinkingfeeling]

106. Ditto. Around 1964

[unblock]

5. I definitely remember seeing Nixon resign when I was 10

But I think I was into social issues earlier. Hippie commie family.

[Lochloosa]

6. 14 Vietnam and Watergate

My parents had no interest in politics. I don't think they ever voted.

[Hekate]

7. Age 20, 1967, Viet Nam War, senator Eugene McCarthy, California

Wasn't that a time.

[ProudLib72]

16. Another 50 years, and I'll be saying "tRump/Russiagate", wasn't that a time!

At least I hope we last that long.

[DURHAM D]

8. Before first grade.

My parents talked public policy at the dinner table and on road trips.

[Motley13]

10. I was from an early age but JFK was the main initiator

My parents were repugs but the Univ got me on the right path.

[Codeine]

11. Really young.

I was a weird nerdy kid, always watching the news and totally into politics. I went through a very right-wing phase when I was about 13, but it didn’t last more than a year or two.

My thirteen year old girl is very politically aware, as are most of her friends. I’m proud of her strongly progressing beliefs at such a young age.

[IADEMO2004]

12. 17 HS senior year. Kent State

[duforsure]

13. Remeber clearly

I was 13 when I met Harry Truman. Used to wave to him all the time while he would be out for his walk too. Very down to earth and kind, but he was funny too.

[True Dough]

30. Welcome to the forum!

Was Truman walking on his own or with a phalanx of security? Was that prior to him becoming president?

[duforsure]

135. Truman

He walked out by himself to talk to a few Junior high school students, and I was so fortunate to be one, and shook his hand, but I would often see him walking daily since I lived not far from where he lived, and he always waved back , and almost always with a smile. We would also see his bodyguard, and driver at the local grocery , who my Dad knew . He just seemed like such a down to earth person that left a lasting mark on me. I later also lived next door to the great Senator Stuart Symington who was also very well respected and liked for his service to our state and county.

[Sophia4]

187. Truman was a truly "independent" man after leaving the White House.

The long ride home
When his eight years as President of the United States ended on January 20, 1953, private citizen Harry Truman took the train home to Independence, Missouri, mingling with other passengers along the way. He had no secret service protection. His only income was an Army pension.

Later that year, Truman bought a Chrysler New Yorker and got behind the wheel. He and Bess drove to Washington, New York and back home again by themselves.

A feat no president had done before or since.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/did-you-know-leaving-the-white-house/

[True Dough]

196. Fascinating!

Thanks for the background info, Sophia!

[Ligyron]

40. KC, huh?

His wood house is still there and I used to drive by it on the way to the vet.

[duforsure]

138. Independence

I drove by his home a many times to, and would always look over to the house where the Secret service were at to. It was a good time when we had a person who had respect for others, had respect for the truth, and was humble and compassionate and you knew it without him saying a word. That's what we need so badly now, someone we can look up to , someone who we know have our backs, that'll tell us the truth, and respect us all, instead of promoting hate , fear,and propaganda undermining decency, and justice for himself. The American people have the right to be represented by our government, not attacked, or lied to, or robbed from, and I feel we will again be that country again, in time. Good always wins out. I'm very hopeful this will pass, but just wish it could be faster. Many are scared we won't win.

[Rhiannon12866]

116. That is the coolest thing I've read today!

Welcome to DU, duforsure! It's great to have you with us!

[duforsure]

137. Thank You

This happened after he left office. He said something funny though to us, he saw Bess peeking out a window and said she was checking up on him. Years later they opened up to the public their home , which Bess left things as they were when President Truman passed away, and I got to take a tour of it. Harry Truman was also a man that didn't mince his words, and said once Nixon was a crook, which we all knew, but he had the courage to call it like he saw it, and made no doubt what he meant. I did get to go to his library , which at that time he was there but didn't get to see him. Our teacher ,who was once a state Rep. knew him and took us down the street for the get together, and it was something I will always remember clearly, and made me think about politics and what he went through while in office, and the incredible decisions he had to make. A once in a lifetime moment.

[Rhiannon12866]

189. Wow! What a wonderful experience!

I agree, a once in a lifetime moment - and a fortunate one! Thanks so much for sharing that!

I've never met a president, but did have the good fortune to see one in person. In 2006, President Clinton came to my district (NY-20) to campaign for the Democratic congressional candidate - and I made sure I was there! It was also a great memory, he was a compelling and charismatic speaker and was very popular here even though this has been a traditionally Republican district. And even though the Republican incumbent had run unopposed several times, this time the Democrat won! And I think that President Clinton's appearance had a whole lot to do with it!

[gopiscrap]

197. welcome to du

[neeksgeek]

14. 9 years old.

My ninth birthday happened to fall on the same day the Iranian Revolution took hostages in the US Embassy in Tehran. From that point to about 1985, I was a big fan of Ronald Reagan. But at 15 I started down the liberal path.

[greymattermom]

15. When I was in elementary school

I remember kids walking around the neighborhood chanting "Eisenhower, Eisenhower, he's our man. Stevenson, Stevenson, garbage can." I remember my step grandmother watching the Democratic convention, probably 1956, then turning off the tv when the Republicans came on. Except for Eisenhower, we were always Democrats.

[JimBeard]

81. I was right along with yall. I watched the same convention in 1956. I was 8 years old at the time..

My aunt was baby setting me for a couple of days and I remember her saying that John Kennedy was a nice man when he had to drop out to Stevenson. Stevenson appointed Estes Kefauver as his running mate. My younger sister named her toy horse keypopper. My mother bought us a picture book of the Presidents and I think we kept that book until it was nothing but loose pages.

My parents were both brought up on farms. My mother still remembers to this day when Lyndon Johnson and FDR got electricity run to farm houses. Still votes for the Democrats. (That's what we always called them)

Father was more into farming issues and hated Republicans like a Ferret's hates rats. The name Ezra Taft Benson is etched in my brain, more like "that damn Benson". He was Secretary under Eisenhower.

He was a very happy many when JFK got elected.

[cbreezen]

17. I must have been 16 or so when I took a personal interest

beyond that of my parents. Reagan taking the solar panels off the roof of the Whitehouse really chapped me.

[dlwickham]

18. 9 years old

I remember watching the presidential returns for the 76 election. Afterwards, I could never figure out why Carter had such a hard time pushing through some of his policies since he had a Democratic Congress.

[Skittles]

19. Anita Bryant made me take a stand

I remember thinking, "THEY (gay folk) don't bother me but SHE sure does." I thought she was a hateful bitch; I became a solid Democrat right then and there.

[Pachamama]

35. I don't remember what age I was, but I recall asking my mother why the Orange Juice lady hates the

...Gays and Women so much....

[Skittles]

63. she was so over-the-top horrible

what struck me was how her inner ugliness completely overrode her outer beauty - it really made her seem physically ugly too

[no_hypocrisy]

20. 41.

I started with being an activist for abortion rights and legalization of marijuana.

I was more of political skimmer when I listened to Lynn Samuels on WABC. While I found her entertaining, I didn't really get new information.

But I truly became politically aware in 1998 when I tuned into a NYC radio station called WEVD. The drivetime host in the afternoon was Jay Diamond, replaced by Sam Greenfield. They both explained the news of the day, pointed out the characters behind the scenes, explained the significance of House votes, the upcoming impeaching of Bill Clinton. It was like finally someone was speaking in terms I could understand.

And one more thing: the station encouraged senior citizens in NYC to call in. They were maybe the most well informed demographic of listeners and they were energized.

I was hooked.

I soon became devoted to other shows like Bill Mazer in the morning. (He had great interviews with journalists and Mickey Carroll who did polls.) And Alan Colmes later at night.

When ABC Corporation bought WEVD from the Jewish Forward, it went off the air two weeks before 9/11 when our community really needed to hear from the hosts and from each other. And since 2001, there hasn't been another radio station for older New Yorkers. (NPR doesn't do the trick.)

[wasupaloopa]

21. 1963. We had social studies in high school. Our text was titled

"The Common Good". We learned about the "invisable poor" I especially remember that. I was 17.

We did not call ourselves liberals back then. We visited Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. We were friends with a group of hippie type girls at the college and learned from them. One time we accidentally ended up in a Civil Rights march there. We rode into town on my motor scooter and drove up to the back of the March. We were noticed as being the only white guys in the march. No one would sell us a soda in town that day.

One day in Nov 1963 while we were in social studies we were notified by the PA system that the President was shot and killed. The teacher's jaw hit the floor.
We were a Catholic boys high school and without a word we all walked across the street to church.

We were so afraid our world would come to an end without John Kennedy.

Three years later I was drafted and was sent to Vietnam. I was rudely made aware that I didn't live in a safe vacuum world as I thought.

In 1968 I went to work to elect Gene McCarthy. Been politically aware ever since.

[oasis]

98. My family preferred Adlai Stevenson over Ike. They went ga-ga over

Kennedy. My first vote was for HHH. Later I joined a union and have been a Dem ever since.

[apcalc]

181. My mom preferred Stevenson as well

[nolabear]

22. 1968. I was 13 and lived on the Mississippi Coast.

As it happened Dr. King was assassinated just a few weeks after my mother’s death. While the people around me pretty much had the attitude that he’d got what was coming to him I watched the country mourning and raging and I think I felt understood. And I understood them. Then there was Bobby, and by then I was paying attention in a way I hadn’t before, and knew that, as much as I loved the people around me, we would never be the same. I couldn’t ignore people’s pain and how we needed one another.

[Demtexan]

23. Born that way.

I filled bags and hung on them on doors for President Kennedy.

I was 6 years old.

I was working elections with my parents.

[barbtries]

91. i was 5 and remember wanting JFK to win

though my parents were not activists, my mother was a republican and my dad was democrat. still, most of what i learned was from watching the news.

i always say that for me it's nature not nurture. i was born a bleeding heart liberal.

[Demtexan]

93. Me to.

I knocking on doors with my Father back then.

I was given cookies to eat.

My father said having a cute little kid along did not hurt.

[tenderfoot]

24. Mid-20s during Reagan's second term

Iran/Contra hearings
The end of the fairness doctrine
Robert Bork being nominated for the Supreme Court

Republican parents.

[roamer65]

37. Yeah. Iran/Contra flipped me over to a liberal.

[teach1st]

25. I was 14, watching the '68 Chicago Convention police riot

I remember the people shouting "the whole world is watching," and I remember watching the police violence and saying to my dad, "this can't happen the United States." The whole "great country" bubble popped and I was never the same.

[MaryMagdaline]

26. Age 9 ** 1968 Assassination of MLK and

Bobby Kennedy. I had post cards of the Kennedys on my wall like other kids had posters of rock stars. We lived outside of DC and I remember the march on Washington. Watergate made me even more aware but the idealism of bobby Kennedy was what sparked it. The post card on my wall said "some men see things as they are and say why? I dream of things that never were and day why not?"

[louis c]

27. I was 15 in 1968. That was the year I became very politcally active

[riverwalker]

28. Age 16 the summer of 68

MLK , Bobby assassinated, riots , Vietnam, I thought it was the end of the world.

[GeorgeGist]

29. 19, Vietnam

[Squaredeal]

31. I guess around 1962

When Kennedy was President and my dad began to earn enough to keep us free from always being truly hungry most of the week. There was no safety net in those days when the Republicans were in control. We thought we were middle class, but we really were poor folk. We thought it was normal not to have enough food, until the Democrats took power. Then things changed, for the better.

[northoftheborder]

32. Mid twenties, with JFK

I had a background of very involved parents, politically, and shared their philosophy. But, until that time, I had just been too busy with children to pay more than a cursory attention to current events.

[Irish_Dem]

33. I was about 8 yrs old.

JFK was running for president, my Father was Irish Catholic from Boston.
He and all the nuns at my school were very excited about the presidential race.
And the thought of an Irish Catholic as president of the United States.

I was excited too, and when JFK won the presidency I was hooked on politics for life. When he was murdered, it broke our hearts.

Then LBJ and the Viet Nam were of critical interest to me, I was against the war.

I was for Civil Rights, Women's Rights, Ecology, etc.
How could anyone see politics as boring or not connected to daily life?

Edited to add: I saw first hand that activism could change the world.

[elehhhhna]

34. 12? Vietnam was going on.

Although I probably first woke up when MLK was shot. My Nixon voting Dad, son of Dutch immigrants, was heartbroken. Dad had always respected Dr King ("He won the Nobel Peace Prize!!! " ). Dad worked in a Chicago blue collar multiracial shop (union steward! Represent!) and when MLK was assassinated he said he'd "never saw grown men cry like that before, even in the war...". I was 9.

Don't remember JFK, hazy maybe on Bobby. Lots of dramatic political events in a short period. Plus Duck and cover drills in KINDERGARDEN. No wonder the boomers are so easily motivated politically by FEAR. Some of it was intense and traumatizing.

[ProudLib72]

52. I am GenX, and I remember the duck and cover drills

Seemed like we had them at least once a month. They were deadly serious to us. I remember talking with my friends about them, discussing how we would survive because we knew how to duck and cover properly. At age seven or eight, I guess we were gullible enough to believe a desk would protect us from a nuclear blast.

[Pachamama]

38. Seeing a speech in 1984 by Walter Mondale where young college republicans were screaming at him and

....I was disgusted watching their behavior and just wondering and wanting to hear what Mondale was saying because it resonated with me. Sometime in the years after that and watching what Ronald Reagan and GHW Bush did and then reading "The Handmaid's Tale", my political direction was adjusting its waypoint and I knew where I stood and started to become more involved and paying attention. It wasn't though really until I became a parent and 9/11 and George W. Bush and the Iraq war that I really got involved more.

[Patterson]

39. 1956 at age 6. The conventions on our new black and white TV hooked me.

[Madam Mossfern]

41. When I was 20

I was against the war, and couldn't vote because the voting age was 21. Eugene McCarthy was running and I worked on his campaign.The Chicago convention was horrible, watching people who worked with me getting clobbered.

I had been to a few anti-war protests before that and in high school was really perplexed about the war - especially in our Problems of Democracy class. It just didn't make sense to me.

Heh - even attended the Grand Central Station Yip-in but quickly left when we noticed that the police were getting into 'formation.' We got out barely in time; someone was hurled through the glass doors behind us.

[LeftInTX]

43. When Reagan was elected. I was 24.

I had previously felt that as a nation, we were moving forward. Reagan was a throwback to Goldwater who lost in a landslide 16 years earlier.

[utopian]

44. About 20. Reagan.

[dhol82]

45. The event was the launch of Air America Radio

That was in 2000 and I was 54.
I had always been a liberal but not especially engaged politically.
All of a sudden I was hearing from Al Franken, Rachel Maddow and Randi Rhodes.
It was like I suddenly woke up and saw the light.
Got annoyed when the station started going down the tubes but there was no going back to apathy.

[dewsgirl]

46. My family were very interested in politics since I can remember. I was 13 in 1990 when Operation

Desert Storm began, since then I have had a deep passion for most things political. I will be 41 in 5 days and over the last year and a half have been more into politics than ever.

[ProudLib72]

58. Happy Birthday!

In five days!

[dewsgirl]

131. Thank you.

[liberal N proud]

47. My mother worked in campaigns and elections

I grew up active.

My earliest political recollection was a party in our back yard for Hubert Humphrey.

I was probably 8 or 9.

[VOX]

48. I was 14 and stuffed envelopes for Goldwater in 1964. That experience made me a hard-core liberal.

A high-school desk-mate talked me into volunteering at the local Barry Goldwater headquarters. It was quite the education. I met a far-right-wing, Kennedy/Johnson-hating couple from Cuba; a young man who was clearly emotionally disturbed, and several fairly nice retired Republican folks.

The big night was taking a charter bus to hear Goldwater speak at a downtown sports venue. We had cheap "nosebleed" seats, and a few rows in front of me a very hyper fellow kept screaming, "George Wallace for Attorney General!" I looked around to see a lone African American man seated in the next aisle over, who actually had tears running down his cheeks; clearly, they were not tears of joy. I started to feel queasy and a little dizzy. Back in the bus, waiting for everyone to get aboard, a contingent of black kids walked by carrying professionally-made signs that read, "Afro Americans for Goldwater," which seemed completely surreal. (To this day, I wondered who paid those kids to parade around with those signs.)

Election night was whiled away in a far corner of the headquarters, where I spent most of the evening "necking" (sounds so quaint now) with a girl I had met there weeks earlier. The emotionally disturbed young man kept breaking in on us wherever we moved -- "Oh, THERE you are!" Just a weird, uncomfortable experience from start to finish. Grateful for it to be over. I knew I could NEVER be a Republican like the rest of my family, and I carried my black-sheep status with a kind of pride.

The following spring I was finally able to transfer to my original high school of choice, which was much more liberal and free-thinking. Bonnie Raitt was in the Folk Music Club, Jeff Bridges was just a regular kid in drama class. The teachers went easy on the no-long-hair rule. We demonstrated against LBJ's bombing of North Vietnam in 1965. My left-wing transformation was complete.

The next presidential candidate I volunteered for was Eugene McCarthy, the first anti-war Democratic candidate. I was 18, but at the time, you had to be 21 to vote; still, one could volunteer to help out. When RFK jumped into the race, I was confident he'd be a sure winner if McCarthy faltered. We all know what happened next.

The first legit vote for president I was able to make was at age 23 -- for George McGovern. It was a baptism of a drubbing that would prepare me for being a true Democrat.

[L. Coyote]

49. Before I was 10 years old, in the 50s. I clearly remember my Dad explaining Republican fat cats

and how wealth disparity had destroyed the country and Hoover caused the Great Depression.

I still remember where I was sitting in the car, which car, where we were on the road in that moment, and what my father said. He explained why we were Democrats and how horrible Republicans were. He eventually was brainwashed by television and voted for Reagan.

I worked for Robert Kennedy before I was old enough to vote and had a job as a Senate candidate's aide after the assassination. I was elected Young Dems president in college my freshman year. I was overseas working for a revolutionary government at age 20, knew some Castro associates.

[ProudLib72]

60. What was he watching that brainwashed him?!

Faux wasn't around then. Holy Crap! For him to go from instructing you on the evils of republicans to voting for reagan is huge!

[L. Coyote]

61. Television. It has been a cutlural propaganda tool since inception.

In the 50s, we only just began to have television in remote, rural America and people were not yet influenced by big media companies. We didn't have Reagan in our living room during prime time every Sunday night selling General Electric.

[mvd]

50. Very young. My parents were always talking politics

I was born in 1976. I vaguely remember being troubled about Reagan. But I'd say it was during the Dukakis candidacy that I became more understanding of it and involved.

[mainstreetonce]

51. I din't get really involved until the Internet hooked me

during Bush/ Gore.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

53. 17, just started college, the Vietnam war got me going.

[DoctorJoJo]

54. Quite Young ...

... as my paternal Grandfather was an Indiana Senator and Deputy Attorney General of Indiana, and my maternal Grandfather was an Indiana County Superintendent--both FDR Democrats. I was active as a student supporter of JFK at Purdue in 1960.

[Ligyron]

55. It probably started with MLK's assignation when I was about 12.

When my parents got home from the movie I informed them and they said something to the effect that he was getting a little "uppity" anyway.

Then the British Invasion occurred, the hippies were born,the college protests ignited, the SDS started up and it was on.

[TlalocW]

56. I remember being 8 and hoping Carter would beat Reagan

But my understanding wasn't any deeper than that's who mom and dad wanted to win. After Reagan fired the air controllers, whenever Dad came out of his bedroom for a bowl of ice cream, and Reagan was on television, he would yell, "Just look at that lying bastard!" Dad was in a steelworkers union.

In 1987 (when I was 15), I had started delivering papers in my small hometown so I took to reading everything but the sports. (I wondered for years until the internet, "Who the heck is this Larry Sabato guy, and why does the press always ask him his opinions on political developments?" ) That was the year that Oral Roberts had asked his followers to send him a ridiculous (for the time) amount of money or God would call him home, which didn't make sense to me. Oh, no... I don't want to go to this magic fairyland that I always say will be wonderful. That kind of contradiction kind of opened a crack, and I started learning more about the interplay between religion and politics, and I saw the wackjob preachers supporting republicans more... Moral Majority, Christian Right, etc. who all seemed angry and targeting people not doing them any harm and doing the opposite of what the Bible said. Not that I put any great stock in the Bible, but I recognized rank hypocrisy when I saw it, and if you can't follow the rules in the religion that you're trying to force everyone else into...

Some people claim the Bible is where they get their morality. I am half-convinced that I got mine from comic-book superheroes.
Issue: Should schools be allowed have mandatory prayers to God.
Me: Sounds like that could lead to kids who believed differently being left out or made to do things they don't want to. WWSBD (What would Superman and Batman Do?)? They would stand up for the underdogs. (Actually, so would Underdog)

On most issues, if there were a clear underdog, I would normally be for them. I've evolved (however little) from that and WWSBD? to see things more from a Constitutional viewpoints, etc.

And I guess that's what made me a bleeding heart liberal.

TlalocW

[mdbl]

57. Vietnam war

made me aware that politicians were pulling the strings on our lives.

[alittlelark]

59. 36 yrs old, 2000

I happened upon a channel showing a debate between Bush and Gore.... B*sh's eyes scared me.

[Blue_true]

62. When Reagan beat Carter by telling lies.

That was when rightwing evangelicals got a toehold in politics. Reagan was much like Trump, although a lot more ethical. But Reagan, like Trump never missed a chance to turn people against the less fortunate.

[RandomAccess]

64. I always hated politics -- and still do

I refused to vote when I was first eligible because it wasn't a direct enough participation in democracy -- took too long to get them out if they weren't suitable, they could lie thru their teeth and we were still stuck with them, they didn't much have to cater to our wishes, you couldn't ever get in to see them unless you could buy them, etc. I'm also not big on the type of compromise too often necessary.

I remember one time in the early 70s, tho, that I got sufficiently motivated to write a letter to my Senator. I got back a form letter on the wrong damn subject! That was the last time I even bothered.

I did, however, watch as much of the Watergate hearings as I could with a toddler son. And I admired so many of them and nearly fell in love with John Dean. But I still really hated politics and refused to have anything to do with it, though when Gary Hart was running, I did go ahead and vote for him in the primary.

I became a feminist in the late 70s.

And then: Anita Hill / Thomas Clarence. I watched it gavel-to-gavel, literally exhausting myself. At one point a woman named Ricky Silberman, a deputy at the EEOC directly under Clarence Thomas, was being interviewed on Public Broadcasting coverage I happened to have on at the time, and she started questioning Hill's mental health.

I said to myself, in horror: OMG, these people can HURT us, and shot out of my chair so fast I'd have knocked anyone standing nearby over and went directly to the phone book to look up the closest National Organization for Women, who were fortuitously having a meeting only a week or so later. And it was packed.

Unfortunately, many of the women who attended ere Republican and felt put off by the fact that most of the women running the organization were Democrats, but -- lots of women were energized and made their voices known at the next election. Much like this year.

I stayed in and got very active. I continued to watch politics from then on -- out of pure self-preservation. And I still hate it.

[GreenEyedLefty]

65. My parents are die hard Democrats

They went to all the events and conventions. My dad was a union guy and hated Ronald Reagan with the fury of a thousand burning suns, and after PATCO, forget it. I remember questioning him on why he thought the way he did and it always boiled down to fairness.

I voted for the first time in a school election in 1994, at age 23. I didn't vote again until 1998 (governor), and it's been every election ever since.

My first Democratic club meeting was in 2006. By then I was furious as to why our state Democratic party didn't have a cohesive message. Jennifer Granholm was our governor but was hung out to dry by the Legislature.

2008 was a huge watershed. Right after the Iowa caucus, I stood up at our club and said we need to throw our support behind Barack Obama... it took some persuasion but our club endorsed his candidacy.

[MineralMan]

66. 15. A sophomore in high school.

This young guy, Jack Kennedy, was running for President. I went to the local Democratic headquarters, and asked what I could do. They gave me things to do. I met lots of people, asked lots of questions, stuffed envelopes, set up folding chairs... anything. JFK won. It's addicting.

[Caliman73]

67. I remember being between 8 and 10.

Growing up during the Reagan Era, and thinking about the possibility of nuclear war. I often wondered why the rhetoric of the Evil Empire was so readily accepted. I remember not wanting to die and not wanting people who seemed so disconnected to be in charge of such weapons.

I read a lot about history and war. Mostly the simple (almost propaganda type stuff) from the school library, but as I got older, I started looking for more complexity.

[irisblue]

68. Yeah Kennedy, Boo Tricky Dicky Nixon. Labor Day 1960

My dad took me to see Kennedy in Detroit on Labor Day 1960 rally. I remember MLK being murdered in April & RFK in June 1968. I couldn't understand why killing someone was a thing to do to stop change in society. The signing of the Paris Peace Accords of the VN war, Jan 1973, Nixon resigning Aug 74.

I listened to my parents & their siblings discussions on Medicare in the middle 60 s, the VN war (Uncles served), the autoworkers unions & the increasing demands for equality & justice from the AA workers, Women demanding & getting the Equal Credit Opportunity Act in 1974.

We were pretty political I guess.

[pansypoo53219]

69. i grew up w/ grandparents w/ the 2 city newspapers. aligned myself w/ the liberal one.

then around17/8 cable + i stumbled on c-span + floor debate. also preferred carter, hated reagan. my parochial school class cheered when we heard he was shot.

[ProudLib72]

100. Remember the Brady Bill?

The last time conservatives took a step toward gun control. What happened to James Brady was very sad, and back then people still had a conscience. Now Scalise can be shot, and GOP congress says it's not time to discuss gun control. My how things have changed... for the worse. You have to wonder what Brady would say today if he were still alive.

[Eugene]

70. 1972 presidential election and Watergate.

My family was Democratic and my father was seriously anti-Nixon.

[Vinca]

71. Late 60's, Vietnam, Democratic convention in Chicago.

I didn't become as politically involved then as I am now, but it was a wake up call. I was 19. I have a memory of watching news coverage of the convention on a black and white television, all by myself and in an unlit room. Strange it's never faded over the years.

[FM123]

72. Very young, elementary school. It was 1972 and I discovered Shirley Chisholm!

[lpbk2713]

73. November 1980.

That would have made me age 36. The dirty tricks RayGun and his party of thieves and liars swindled the election away from Jimmy Carter made me a confirmed Dem for life. The next eight years made me even more certain I made the right decision.

[democratisphere]

74. Birth.

Russia (again) and the US were having a serious cold war involving nuclear weapons.

[applegrove]

75. My dad always talked politics. That was his thing. He came from a family

that was in political circles in Ottawa. I clearly remember my dad and his friend talking over Watergate excitedly when I was a kid. It was just always there. We had maps of the country and the world and my mom used to quiz us on the names of the countries and their capitals. I remember my twin brother was good at that. Public radio was always on. Often upstairs and downstairs at the same time. Was great. I'm just sorry I lost my way as a teen and didn't follow it so much. Picked it up again in a big way when I was in my late 30s as an interest.

[shenmue]

76. Early teens

When they said Oliver North had sold arms to the asshole terrorists, that was it for me.

[raven mad]

77. 1962

I was 8.

[tavernier]

78. Wow, this is a tough one for me.

My parents were Latvian, their ppl were murdered by Stalin who was later accepted as an ally by Roosevelt, and by that token, given away to Russia as a part of their winnings as per the Yalta Conference.

Understandably, my parents, and all Latvians denied their support to any Democratic Party forever.

The Bush’s changed it for me.

Papa Bush was clueless... We were helpless after hurricane Andrew, and he wouldn’t lift a finger to help. But son George decided to attack and destroy a country based on a lie.

So after years of trying to be a good republican, I finally saw the light. Sadly, I was an outcast in my family. Even up until this last election, when I warned the Latvian community against Trump and his Putin connection.

Fortunately, the die hard Trumpies now get it, and have apologized to me.

So that’s my long and sad story.

My parents were antagonistic against the democratic views of our country, but oddly, they encouraged me to be a free thinker. We visited the Statue of Liberty and Washington D.C. memorials.

They had a love/hate relationship with America because of WW2, but they never discouraged my love for this country.

[ProudLib72]

105. That was a very interesting story. Thanks for sharing!

[Saboburns]

79. I was born in 1967 in Lincoln County, West Virginia. Southern West Virginia.

In the Heart of Appalachia. Coal country. Much poverty. More ignorance. And I live here still.

I have been a political junkie my entire life, I guess you could say since I was a toddler. During my formative years (70s thru 90s) Lincoln County politics was a very interesting and highly popular spectacle. At the time there were 2 political factions in Lincoln County, and they were both Democratic. Republicans received less than 10% of any vote, either local or national races.

Votes were bought and sold in the open. Historically voters expected to be paid, and the bosses, they expected to pay. That's what elections were like here back then. Its the reason I started my interest in politics from such an early age. We lived directly across the street from a polling place. And every election day one faction would have a pickup truck in my left neighbors yard, and the other faction had their pickup truck in my right neighbors yard. And it was a steady stream of voters being wooed with 5 dollar bills and pints of liquor. Daylight to dark. We kids played outside in our yard, whiffle ball or tag, or on the swing set. And watched the show that was 100 feet away.

And what a show it was. Especially as the later the day got, the drunker everybody got. I've never seen anything like it since. I mean to say it was a public spectacle. There was no hiding or being low key, it was loud, rough, and unpoliced.

The Feds came round and cleaned it up in the mid 90s. A bunch of people went to the penitentiary for vote buying. And happily it's not that way here anymore.

But boy howdy, watching that show up close sure made me pay attention to politics from a very early age.

In closing I will say this, the fact that Jimmy Carter (who I admire more than any other human) is not a national treasure, and is mostly ignored even by the Democratic Party says all there is to be said about the state of this nation, and where this nation is headed.

[bdamomma]

82. The Vietnam war I was about 13 yrs old

peaked my interest, it was always on TV during dinner time, and my mother, father and myself always watched the news. My mom and dad were true Democrats. My dad didn't particularly "tricky dicky". I didn't care for Reagan either.

I asked my dad what's the difference between Democrats and Republicans, Dad said Democrats cared about the Middle Class and Republicans were only concerned about Business/rich man. Dad was right.

[moriah]

83. 8, made aware being liberal was weird here. 20, when Bush v Gore, that...

... I truly got pissed.

I remember writing in my diary as a child about being upset about the invasion of Panama, and feeling we could have done something different during the 1st Iraq War. I thought the impeachment was ridiculous, voted for Gore expecting him to win and telling Nader people they were throwing their vote away... then the Daily Show's coverage of Disaster 2000.

I said the moment they declared the winner that we'd be back in Iraq before his first term was over... and I was right.

I protested it because I had the opportunity to leave my home red state and spend a year in Queens. Helped the NLG hand out educational materials to arrestees getting released, along with coffee and cigarettes and hugs, after the A7 mass arrest that cost the city.

I don't know how much was nature or nurture. Mom was a liberal but my grandfather, who we lived with, was a,conservative and my grandmother kept her mouth shut. I have always detested war, violence, even yelling, though. And I have always felt you couldn't depend on a man as a woman when it came to supporting children but that's definitely nurture. Grandpa got sick and Dad was an addict.

I've joked I'm either reincarnated from a past life as a Quaker or a Vietnam war protesting, bra-burning feminist who burned out young.

[LuvLoogie]

84. With the 1971 release of Jesus Christ Superstar.

I was 10 years old. The music and political commentary just blew me away, and to this day informs my feelings on the teachings of Christ and political figures in general.

From kings to congressman, they are to random degrees charged with charisma, duty, and power, for good or for greed.

[demosincebirth]

85. Adlai Stevenson. I was 12, at the time, and every member

Of my working family, cousins and uncles, were union members. I had no choice but to be democrat in life. Looking back, it was a great time!

[yonder]

87. I wised up shortly after voting for Gerald Ford

A couple of perceptive friends, intelligent conversation and a move out of a tough-ish Denver neighborhood helped me see the light.

[Sneederbunk]

88. Age 20. Bobby Kennedy.

[Yonnie3]

89. It is not like someone turned a switch and then I was.

I grew up watching the Colonial Williamsburg movie about the Revolution and the House of Burgess's meetings. It was free and air conditioned. Some political awareness was gained, I was maybe 6 to 10 years old. Politics were discussed at times at home between my mother and father. I listened and asked questions about contrary things I'd heard at school.

Around 7th or 8th grade in a Social Studies class we had to read and compare two candidates' platforms. I don't recall who they were, but it was interesting and I definitely could pick a candidate.

I watched as my mother became active in the Civil Rights Movement and the politics of the Baptist Church forced her elsewhere. The MLK assassination was around my 18th birthday and my mother talked of the enabling politicians being culpable. I listened and absorbed.

I then moved away and fell in with some people who were critical of the politics of the Vietnam War. I witnessed student protests in Mexico City in the late summer of 1968 with extremely violent police. A reaction to a push for reform and progressive policies. This was politics. I took notice.

I returned to the US and went to college. I became more political, nearly rabidly so, with an anti-establishment bent. We demonstrated and generally raised hell in DC. We didn't trust any politician to tell the truth.

Fast forward to the George McGovern campaign. I worked my tail off for him and was devastated at the loss.

and so on.

When did I become political? I don't know.

I am also wondering if you are really asking, when and why did I take an interest in government.

[ProudLib72]

108. I started contemplating posting this thread a couple days ago

I question the time of my own introduction into politics. When I looked back all the events that took place, moments when I could have begun to be interested to the point that I wanted to follow all politics, the one time that stood out was W's administration. It seemed to happen rather quickly, within half a year. I wanted to know who was responsible for this stupid man being in charge. I remember driving home on 9/11 from where I taught in Fairfield, CT, about 50 miles from NY City. I turned on NPR. At that point they had no idea who was responsible for the hijackings. I kept repeating out loud to myself, "It's Bin Laden". I suppose I had been somewhat informed prior to that, but I hadn't been all that interested. Then I woke up.

When I wrote "politically minded", I was imagining that moment when we realize that our world depends on politics, from environment to taxes and everything in between. It's the moment you stop seeing things as just happening and start seeing the political motivation behind the "happenings". It's when you want to be aware of all the major players, their backgrounds, with whom they align, etc. Of course, any deeply held interest in just about any area of inquiry will lead you, eventually, to government. It could be civil rights, nuclear proliferation, war, education, anything!

[Yonnie3]

143. Thank you for your response.

I had a difficult time formulating my earlier response and your clarification is helpful. I still have difficulty pinpointing a moment of awakening. I do find the exercise interesting.

I did turn away from political activism after McGovern's loss in 1972. I voted, but was not very involved. I got active again after the Raygun took office and have stayed so.

[ProudLib72]

148. I also think political awakening has to do with realizing you have some control

Yes, it's difficult to pinpoint exactly when it happens. Even after I was sure that it was W's administration and specifically 9/11, I started to remember other instances prior to that when I was aware of politics. For instance, the first time I voted in a presidential election I felt like I was voicing my opinion and it mattered. But I lost interest afterward. I was still really naive.

[Atman]

90. Nixon

Somwhere ive got pictures of my bedroom wall adorned with newspaper front pages announcing the resignation of Richard Nixon. I watched all the hearings on tv as a wee lad in the seventies. I've been a political junkie ever since.

[PCIntern]

92. The day Kennedy was shot.

I was 10 years of age.

It was like a second birth trauma.

[hwmnbn]

94. I'm 69 yrs old...

And I became politically aware after I got out of the Army in November, 1968. Prior to that I'd been blissfully unaware of politics and I meekly submitted to the draft because I didn't know any better.

I've gone thru Nixon, Reagan, and the two Bushes. They've kept me involved.

[The Genealogist]

95. I grew up around political discussions

My father's side of my family is especially political. Conservatives all. I am the only liberal in the lot. My paternal grandmother was particularly political. She read voraciously on world politics, especially on the topic of Communisim, and was a big Reagan supporter. She had a couple of filing cabinet drawers full of articles on countries all around the world. My father and uncle would later become right wing radio junkies, especially Rush Limbaugh. My mother's side of the family were all Democrats. Most of them were not liberal or progressive at all. They just voted for Democrats because Great Grandpa did and I think they were all afraid he would come up out of his grave and get them if they didn't vote for Democrats. My maternal grandmother, the Democrat, was in many ways more conservative than my Republican paternal one.

For me personally, the real jelling of my political beliefs came in 11th grade Civics in 1990. It was the first time I had contact with what the Democrats and Republicans actually stood for, aside from a biased tirade about the other side from one family member or the other. And, after reflecting on what I was learning, realized I was a Democrat. My first big election was 1992, and I voted for Bill Clinton. I've voted straight Dem since, unless of course the election is non-partisan.

[House of Roberts]

96. I was 11 during the 1968 conventions.

An older friend was babysitting two doors down and his charge was friends with my little brother. They'd play and we watched the conventions. He explained all the goings on as it happened, so I became interested in it at that time.

[JimBeard]

97. A really neat website. Click through it. Some footage back to the 1890's

http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675066387_Presidential-Election-results_Republican-Party-headquarters_Kennedy-leads_moving-bulletin

[Solly Mack]

99. Pretty much always.

Politically-minded mother. A cousin that was once Governor. Childhood neighbors of my father that became father/son governors, as well as a senator.

Another Senator as a family friend.

All Democrats.

Sister went to school with the granddaughter of another Governor - who happened to own a business next to my mom's place. So I saw him more than I wanted to - another Democratic party member but really a Dixiecrat. Calling him such would only be unfair if it wasn't true.

Daddy King performed the funeral services for a childhood friend of mine who died while in high school.

The King family lived not too far from me while growing up.

Lots of political happenings around me as a child is the point. Hard not to be politically aware considering my childhood.

I celebrated the passing of Roe v Wade at age 9 - and I knew & understood exactly what I was celebrating.

The tales I could tell.

[Blue_Tires]

101. 1994, the North/Robb senate race in VA, and the GOP congressional takeover

My first election, I was 18...

[Frustratedlady]

102. After the Cuban Crisis and it was cemented after JFK was killed.

By then, I had 3 children and worried about their safety. I had always had an interest in government and politics, but nowhere near what it was after those two events.

After the George W fiasco, I was totally disgusted with how easily the powers that be were able to take over that election. Now, with this clown in office, I'm stunned at how far our political process has been degraded.

[Historic NY]

103. 13, but that was when

Democrats & Republicans worked together. My Uncle was a elected 42+ yr Democrat in town but it wasn't uncommon to have Republicans who would help you out. I still have a couple that are a bit younger than me but their fathers or mothers were friends back in the day. If I ask they will come and help. Strange back then I called the GOP County Chairman to arrange my drivers license road test...no problem he straighten it out.

[TalenaGor]

104. 9/11/01

I couldn't stop watching the news.....I found this site sometime soon after that....idk when...this and raw story....lol

Before that day....i just remember repeating what I heard on TV....it was all Clinton blowjob Monica cigar blah blah blah.....

I didn't know what I 'was' until I started paying attention....

[byronius]

107. 17-18. Science fiction.

[ProudLib72]

109. Are you talking about 1984 and Animal Farm type books?

Or was it something like Quatermass on TV?

[byronius]

121. Harlan Ellison, Heinlein, Harry Harrison, Robert Silverberg, Asimov, Philip K. Dick.

I started reading the sci-fi section at Sanger Library in Toledo at 13, finished every book in it by sixteen. My secret power is reading, without a doubt. I have consumed an endless variety of books at an increasing rate since then.

Plus, cultural events like the King/Riggs match and Elton coming out. Social studies with Mrs. Klimko in seventh grade, where she showed us slides of black men that had been blowtorched to death.

I stuck my head in an oven at Dachau when I was ten. Kind of warped me permanently in a good way. I may not tolerate Nazis, not ever, not in any way, insert extreme adjectives here. I've studied the two wars and history ever since, continuously. I enjoy Inglorious Bastards and Django waaaaaaaaayyyyy too much. OMG.

My father was a Goldwater conservative. Logically racist and and intelligently anti-Semitic. Misogynistic, violent, ruthless, and the smartest guy in the room. Anyone who knew him long enough was scared of him. Never knew what that guy was capable of. Holy %$#. Tried to teach me how to kill cats at the age of three, and that's my first memory.

I took a left turn. Both my kids are self-determined, strong-minded, well-educated liberals who have promised me to never, ever allow their children to experience corporal punishment. And that is my greatest revenge.

[ProudLib72]

123. OMG!

Teaching you to kill cats at 3?!! That's horrible! I'm glad you managed to turn the hate you were raised with into something positive.

[Hamlette]

110. My aunts took me to Democratic conventions starting at age 6

mom took me on protest marches (civil rights) not long after.

[TheDebbieDee]

111. It was the spring of '92 which made me 31 years old...

I got out of the Army in July 1991 and was still getting myself establish so I could bring my two daughters to live with me. This was also during the Primaries for the '92 Presidential Election. One day, I heard one of the Democratic candidates say that it was cheaper to send a person to college for four years than to keep that person in prison for four years, or even ONE year. I thought about what he said and I became a democrat that day...

And I remembered something that Will Rogers was famous for saying: I'm not a member of any organized political party - I am a Democrat!

That was true when he said and it's still true today!

[moondust]

112. 60s, Vietnam,

classes in government and civics, high school student government, assassinations, friend killed in Vietnam shortly after I arrived at college (destroying my motivation), two other friends died later due to agent orange exposure in Nam, army linguist in divided Berlin during Cold War.

[Runningdawg]

113. Early 60's around age 4 or 5

We had friends who were black and I had to learn that I couldn't act around them in public the way I did when we were all together at one another's houses. Looking back I realize now what a risk it was for my parents and them to even be friends in the first place.
A few years later I was playing at some friends house when their mom got the news their dad had been killed in Vietnam.
At pow-wows in the 70's there were some family camps that were off limits. I could hang out with the kids, just not in their camp. My parents were worried the FBI would come looking for AIM. Around the same time all that was going on a guy from my town came back from Vietnam, took his family hostage and eventually let everyone go, except for one kid who was my friend and he saw his dad commit suicide.
It just snowballed from there.

[meadowlander]

114. Late teens. Calvin & Hobbes, Doonesbury, Hunter S Thompson, the Daily Show.

I was sort of vaguely aware of politics and world events starting from the Gulf War but didn't become a news junkie until a few years later and then mostly as a result of reading and watching satire.

More or less my whole family are Democrats except for my creepy, greedy racist uncle. I guess when I was a kid and someone said "Republican" he's the person I pictured and knew I didn't want to be that way.

[Awsi Dooger]

115. 8 years old

Spring of the 1968 campaign.

So that was a tragic introduction. My dad was huge for Robert F Kennedy

[sakabatou]

117. It had to be around Bush II's second term

[Basic LA]

118. I was 21, just back from Vietnam.

It was 1967 & I landed in San Francisco at just the right time.

[stopwastingmymoney]

119. Inaugauration day 1981

When the hostages were released that day, 10 yo me thought "Bullshit!!"

I've been interested ever since. My Dad is a history buff, loved JFK and was in high school when he was killed. He still loves to talk politics with me. It's something we share that no one else in the family enjoys as much.

[ProudLib72]

120. I have few people who want to talk politics with me as well

My mother is devoted to Rachel and DU (even though she isn't a member). After her my brother-in-law is the most political, but I rarely get a chance to talk to him. I don't think either of them spend five hours a day on DU, though.

[SeattleVet]

122. Age 14, 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago...

I was spending that summer with my cousins in northern Indiana, about 70 miles from Chicago, until about a week before the convention. It was a summer of beads and chains, bare feet, cutoff jeans; "Light My Fire" and "Hey Jude" were the big hits on the radio. Walking near 'town' one day with my cousin, a cop approached and said something about 'getting to Chicago if I was headed there, to get out of *his* town'. Had no idea what he was talking about until we got back to the house and saw on the news about a movement beginning. Convention started after I got back home to NY, just north of NYC, and I grabbed up a copy of the Village Voice and tuned in to WBAI (Pacifica Radio). Got my eyes opened real quick-like.

Attended a few anti-war marches and rallies, and then...

The day after the Kent State massacre some students (and a few teachers) in our high school organized a march to City Hall from the school. Strange men in suits were filming us along the way, with 16mm movie cameras. Yeah, a bunch of high school kids were on the minds (and in the lenses) of the local FBI.

My parents were definitely NOT against the Vietnam war. I'd wind up spending hours after dinner at the table arguing with my father. He had served in the Navy during WW-II, and was very active in the local VFW post. Arguing about the war created a rift between us that never really closed, even until his death about a dozen years ago, and even after I had served 12 years in the Air Force...there was always a little bit of Vietnam between us.

[shanti]

124. well...

i'm 62, and the moment i became interested in politics was when jerry brown ran for CA governor the first time, late teens, but was always a liberal. my parents were both dems, but weren't overtly political. i call that time "bk" (before kids). after that though, family obligations took over and there was no time for anything else. i barely remember raygun, bush, or clinton as i was so busy, but state politics was on the radar, as i was a state worker. my national political interest didn't really happen until * stole the 2000 election. it's been on since then!

[Jspur]

125. In 1992

at the age 9 I became politically aware. My parents are from India but I was born in this country. Indians tend to be passionate about politics. For them following politics is like following a sport. I remember at a very young age my dad was obsessed with politics. When I was 9 years old he made me watch both the democratic and republican conventions. My dad is a democrat and the year was '92. At the time I didn't like Bill Clinton because he came across to me as a smug asshole. Believe it or not I thought Bush Sr was a better person than him at the time. Only reason I decided to root for Clinton was because of my Dad told me how he was better than Bush. My dad planted the seeds for me to Dem. My Dad believe it or not would listen to Rush Limbaugh a lot on the radio when driving. I would ask him why he would listen to him and his response was "I want to understand the belief system of the idiots who follow him." My dad would always stress to me you need to know the beliefs of the other side in order to defeat them in an argument and to push your own ideas. As time went along I would read more and learn more about both parties and just felt I could relate more with the Dems when it came to racial and economic issues versus the republicans.

[Upward]

126. Young. El Salvador

Was visiting the friend of a sibling when talk went to world affairs. I said something along the lines of what a relief it was that El Salvador got to have an election and said friend gave me the real deal: people were forced to the polls in order to legitimize the bogusness.

That, and Reagan.

[BBbats]

127. When I was 10.

In 1963 when I was 10 years old.
When Kennedy was assassinated I figured that something was being covered higher up. Before that I bought all the America the greatest stuff my teachers put out.
I was at a next door neighbors house and saw Lee Harvey Oswald get shot by Jack Ruby live on TV. My neighbor buddy's dad was a union official at the local quarry. When Oswald got it he declared " They got the fall guy". He then realised we kids were around and said " You kids didn't hear nothin'"and left the room.
I figured then that somebody wasn't telling the whole story

[Thunderbeast]

128. I was eleven years old in 1964

when our family went to an unfamiliar neighborhood to march with several thousand strangers to the Federal Courthouse in downtown Portland. We were protesting the murder of the three civil rights workers (Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner) in Philadelphia Mississippi.

Angry whites lining the route shouted hateful things at us as we peacefully walked across the Willamette River.

A frail old black woman walked with us. At one point, she turned to us with tears in her eyes and thanked us for joining the demonstration.

Ten years later, I was a community worker in the same Birmingham neighborhood where four little girls had been murdered by the Klan.

My family was very supportive of political causes. Among candidates I worked for were Wayne Morse, Robert Kennedy (meeting him ten days before his assasination), and Walter Mondale.

The image of that frail woman who had lived her whole life under Jim Crow (or the watered down Oregon equivalent) changed me.

[stopwastingmymoney]

141. That is very interesting,

I recently spent some time with three women your age who were raised in the south. They were telling me about their memories of when their schools were desegregated and all of the upheaval that surrounded that time. I had never met or talked with anyone who remembered anything like that. (California, and too young)

I asked my Dad about it later, he's about 7 years older, raised in Los Angeles. He said his schools were not segregated. We concluded that things were different in the west.

I plan to share your story with him, he still tears up over Bobby and would love to talk to someone with your experience. What an interesting life you've led, thank you for your service 😊

[unc70]

129. Age 7, watching 1956 conventions

I watched nearly gavel to gavel, fascinated. My parents watched a lot of each, was first time the conventions had been widely televised.

[OxQQme]

166. Me too unc

Fascinated is a good description.
Then Ike signing the Civil Rights Act in '57.
And growing up in Los Angeles, the Interstate Highway System excited me as I was then in my first year as licensed driver.
And his warning of the MIC having way too much power while I was in the Marines in '61.

[Lil Missy]

130. During the Gingrich Revolution

I thought I was a Republican, because my family members were a Republican and they told me That I was too.

Then Gingrich came along with his contract for America and the witchhunt surrounding Bill Clinton and his impeachment. I received a questionnaire from the Republican party and I wrote back telling them I was changing my registration to democrat and that I thought Newt Gingrich was a horses ass. I’ve never looked back.

[ProudLib72]

150. And yet he is suddenly relevant again

While I don't remember everything about his ouster, I do remember that he was a pariah. Now the news covers his opinions again, and I can't understand why. It's as if in the current administration his faults don't seem nearly that bad.

[sazemisery]

132. 12 - 13

1968 - 1970

Thanks to some older friends, some of which had already done their tour(s) to Vietnam, I was made aware of the big picture and events happening beyond my small world. The catalyst for my activist involvement was the Kent State Massacre. I have been involved politically since that time.

[Jarqui]

133. About 5-6 years old

I told my father that all the heroes I read about at that time were dead. I wondered what heroes were still alive. He suggested I follow JFK since he had earned medals in the war. So I did. And I got all caught up in Camelot ...

One night at the dinner table, I asked the family "President Kennedy said 'ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.' So what can I do for my country?” They burst out laughing "You're just a little kid! You can't do anything!" etc It was kind of embarrassing and humiliating. I didn't realize everyone had such a low regard for my abilities. But I was also a little ticked off and wondered if I could try to show them but didn't know how.

When JFK got shot, my desire to do something became immense. I wanted to honor him by doing as he asked. I felt like he had given me something.

One day not long after, as I was on the bus going home from school, I saw a store front sign of a campaign office looking for volunteers for a local politician. I hopped off the bus and tried to volunteer. They basically laughed at me too. But they kind of played along and gave me a few brochures to hand out. I went along with it - didn't complain and handed them out. I then showed up the next day. They gave me a few more to hand out but were kind of snitty about it - like I was a bother. And they wouldn't give me guidance on which streets I should deliver the brochures to - like what I was doing didn't matter.

After I delivered the second set of brochures, I bought a road map and figured out how many houses I could do a day after school allowing for 2 rainy days in 7. I put a wooden box on the back of my bicycle. I showed up the next day.

I thumb-tacked the road map marked up in color pencil for where I was going to make deliveries or had made deliveries already and told them they should instruct others to mark it as they took brochures for delivery to prevent waste and duplication of effort. I then took about 3,000 brochures of each type and placed them in the wooden box on the back of my bike. The old ladies were taken aback by my aggressiveness and backed off. I plastered my bedroom with campaign literature telling my family that I thought President Kennedy would accept this as a way for me to help my country. Over the next three weeks, I delivered the brochures and my candidate won. Nobody laughed anymore and I was hooked.

President Kennedy was an enormous inspiration for me and still is. President Obama rejuvenated my enthusiasm.

[Va Lefty]

136. Kent State. I was 8

[PJMcK]

142. 1972 when I was 14

I hated Nixon and that's when I became a life-long Democrat. His criminality and warmongering appalled me.

Over the years, I've watched the Republicans destroy our country little by little with a continually breaking heart. I had hoped for a big change with President Obama but one man obviously couldn't reshape our dysfunctional nation.

I'm still hopeful that Trump won't completely destroy the American Experiment.

[Dennis Donovan]

144. 1972 McGovern Campaign

I was 7 and Mom was a local Dem leader, so she had us stuffing envelopes and going door-to-door for McGovern. In 76 and 80, it was for President Carter.

[CanonRay]

145. The Kennedy-Nixon election

I was hooked.

[ancianita]

146. My political mindedness started with the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debate. I was twelve.

I learned what the Democratic Party represented during those debates.

My political outlook later broadened as I had to practice duck and cover in my sixth grade class during the Cuban Missile Crisis, watch black people get punched, tortured with dogs and fire hoses on the nightly Huntley-Brinkley news.

I lived in unincorporated Fort Lauderdale area in Florida, but had to spend one semester at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, FL, which opened my eyes to the influence of Southern thinking on Southern youth. That Southern politics were as much about white supremacy as racism (as if those are different). I had to leave that toxic, authoritarian bubble and return to graduate from South Broward High School in Hollywood.

Southeastern Florida was full of Northeasterners. My mom was a full-on Northern Democrat while my Alabama stepdad was a yellow dog Democrat. They argued at the dinner table over whether civil rights battles we saw were "deserved," as my Southern stepdad said. Yes, he used the N word, which left me with a bitter hatred toward him. He said I'd be lynched as a N -lover in the South. Those were the racist politics he was raised with, and I vowed to do something about this racist divide.

I had many Jewish friends who explained to me the forming of Israel while I took world geography and civics class.

When the national shit hit the fan over Vietnam, '68, my stepdad, as an injured WWII vet, agreed with me about the illegal evils of the war. I was a sophomore at Florida State, about to get kicked out for breaking curfew that was enforced only on the women of the university.

Hung out later at dance clubs several times with Black Panthers off Florida A & M's campus, picked up black militants and Malcolm X's views, moved up to Augusta, GA, (James Brown's home town) and as an officer's wife, learned southern politics from local TV and GA's governor, Lester Maddox.

Those were the early days; there's a lot more detail, and much to tell of since, but I prefer no Internet records.

For me, it's been both age and high tension events.

[yardwork]

147. I was three when JFK was assassinated. It made a big impact on me.

People were very upset. I was just old enough to perceive how upset all the grownups were. The TV was on. I remember watching Walter Cronkite and seeing a schematic of the route. The boxes representing cars looked like my wagon. I thought that the president - whoever that was, somebody important - was shot while riding in a wagon.

I grew up on a college campus during the Vietnam War. I can't remember not being aware of politics and it's impact on my life and those around me. I remember a student telling me that he was going to be drafted, and that he might die. He told me that some of his friends would probably die.

[treestar]

149. 13.

We were encouraged to follow "current events" in school.

[pnwest]

152. 36, and it was 9/11 for me as well.

[Alice11111]

153. 4th grade, racism. 7th grade, racism. MLK, JFK, RFK, LBJ

from Jr High, past college. VietNam. College, Young Democrats. Working in political campaigns, even managing. Music.

2000, I took a hard turn to the left. 2016, I took an even harder left turn.

[bettyellen]

154. 3-4, read the news with my Dad.

[BigDemVoter]

156. I was 16. . .

Reagan got elected, and the religious right obtained enough power to start its bullshit.

[csziggy]

157. About 15, in 1967

I was trying to start a debate club and the topic suggested by the teacher/sponsor was the Vietnam Was. No one else would take the anti point of view so I did, with help from my older sister who was extremely anti-Vietnam War. The person who was supposed to be pro pretty much parroted the going popular lines about it. There was really no "winner" declared but in my little right wing high school that got me labeled as a dirty liberal which I was anyway.

After that I was very anti-Nixon, couldn't believe he got elected in 1968 and in my first years of college was stunned that he was re-elected. That depressed me for several years and I stayed away from politics for several years until my now husband convinced me to vote for Jimmy Carter - his brother was campaigning for Carter in Florida.

Since then I have been on & off active, depending on business and on my injuries and health. I'm hoping to be active this coming year but the healing is going slowly since my last operation.

[CrispyQ]

158. It was 1974 & I was a high school senior &

I had an afternoon part time job across the street from the Gary Hart for Senate campaign office. I thought it would be a good place to meet college boys. I also joined the debate team that year, & all the topics were political. By the time I left high school, I had caught the political bug. As far as I know, only one other student in my class, did the same.

Most of my friends aren't very political. They vote, & sometimes they even send money, but very few call or write to their reps. They all went to the woman's march last January, but by the time the vote for the ACA came around, they were to burned out on the negativity to bother to call. This is what we're up against. I think that if you've paid close attention, especially since 2000 (W), then your outrage meter can go higher than if you've just started to pay attention since the Con.

[marlakay]

159. As a teenager during Watergate

My dad and I would sit in backyard and discuss issues for hours.

But when I married and had kids I stopped paying attention for a long time other than voting until Bush which was like a slap in the face and woke me up. Been awake ever since.

I did once take my kids when they were 8 & 10 to state capital in Sacramento to protest something to do with the schools with a bunch of other parents.

[underpants]

160. Always interested in news history and politics but I flipped sides in 1992

I was in the Army watching the Democratic convention and Jesse Jackson made his famous "That's not America" speech. I realized he was right and saw the military as the embodiment of conservative's dream - you will have a rank/place, you will do as you are told, etc

[ProfessorPlum]

167. interesting

[underpants]

170. About 9 months later when I got out and went home

I was catching up with my 3 best friends. Girls Sports news music etc. Jesse's name came up for some reason and simultaneously they all shouted at me as I shouted at them DID YOU SEE THAT SPEECH?!??

One of the greatest political oratory performances of all time IMHO

[Tikki]

161. My mother was a single mother and I must have been around 10 yrs old.....

She took me to a local park in eastern Washington State to see Democratic Senator Henry (Scoop) Jackson. She told me that Democratic politicians were the only party that cared about women's issues.

She said the men where she worked were all repubs and told her if she had a
husband she would be able to ask him what to do about anything.

This was early 1960's.

Tikki

[JustAnotherGen]

162. I think - 7

Right before my 8th birthday Reagan was sworn in.

I think my dad yelled at Walter Cronkite for 8 straight years.

That's also when if were being jerks my dad would tell us to stop acting like a Republican (stupid) and would threaten to drop us off at the White House to live if we didn't stop acting the fool.


I read the newspaper at 8 - so yeah. 7/8 years old.

[ProudLib72]

165. You're father had it right back then!

That's hilarious that he was going to drop you off at the WH for punishment.

[Ernesto]

163. I was about 7 when I saw Nixon speak on TV

In 1952, I was just a kid but my instincts told me he was a DICK!

And of course my 'lil' trip to Vietnam got me on the band wagon for Democrats

[ProfessorPlum]

169. My turning point was the book "The Clothes Have No Emperor" by Paul Slansky

I grew up in the Trump-voting part of PA, so I was conservative and Republican by default. Was always mildly interested in politics, but didn't pay a lot of close attention. One day in college, probably 1989-1990, I heard some other kids reading from Slansky's book and laughing uproariously. I asked for it for Christmas, and after I read through it and had some practice seeing conservatives and republicans in the harsh light of the truth, I began to change. Voted for Clinton in 1992, and changed my party affiliation shortly after that.

[Niagara]

171. My mother was raised in a Christian Republican home

where her father and mother (my grandfather and grandmother) were dirt poor farmers raising four children. My mother and the rest of her siblings ate bread topped with milk and sugar for breakfast. Aside from whatever meat for the main dish for dinner, they ate green beans almost every night along with those meals. She refuses to eat green beans to this day.

As my mother got older in the mid 70's she got a job in a union factory that at that time paid $4.00 an hour. That was a high paying job in those times. Eventually, it wasn't until the Reagan Administration that she realized that she wasn't a republican.

My mother was always pro-choice, always made comments about how women should have control over their own bodies. I had mentioned to her in my freshman year of high school that several of my female classmates were pregnant. She told me to let her to know when I was ready for intimacy so that I could get on birth control.

I voted for the first time in 1996 for Bill Clinton when I was 19. Not knowing or realizing what was at stake, I didn't voted again until 2008 for Barack Obama. I have been an active voter ever since my politically inactive mistake. I've had comments made to me by others that it's just not worth the time voting. I flat out tell them that it takes 5 minutes to drive to the voting place and about another 5 minutes to actually vote.Thankfully, we don't have to stand in a line for hours where I live.

[ProudLib72]

174. My first job was in '88 going door to door

gathering data for a city directory. I was only 16 and made $3.35 /hr. I thought that was pretty decent money at the time. Four bucks an hour in the mid-70s would have been astronomical pay!

[Niagara]

192. Yes it was astronomical pay for that time.

She worked at an UAW plant. It closed it's doors around 1991 due to an unresolved strike.

[StevieM]

195. Welcome to DU!! I am so glad that you have moved on from lurking to posting!! (eom)

[Raine]

172. Pretty much always. I can't remember a time when I wasn't

I suppose because my parents were always into politics. When I was a little kid I was taken to political rallies etc, politics was dinner table conversation.

[nini]

173. Probably 3 or 4

From an early age we went to labor day parades and were part of the letters written to elected officials etc. I worked Bobby Kennedy's campaign at age 11 stuffing envelopes

[Niagara]

194. Important work and inspiring. Excellent! n/t

[IluvPitties]

175. When I was 9...

[DemKittyNC]

176. Around 7 or 8 years old

My dad was very adamant that I knew how our Government worked and who was in charge - the main players and the reason why things worked the way they did.

I didn't full appreciate it back then but later in my teens I started getting politically active and haven't stopped since.

[ProudLib72]

182. Cool dad!

[DemKittyNC]

184. )

Yeah he was, thank you

[PoorMonger]

177. About at 14-15

This was my first year of high school and I was becoming more aware of all kinds of things i’d previously ignored.

[hurple]

179. I was 32

The 2000 election. I was absolutely disgusted by the R shenanigans in FL and the supreme court decision.

[apcalc]

180. 19 in 1969

Civil rights , feminisn, anti Vietnam war

[lapfog_1]

183. Newt and the Contract "with" ("on") America

and the government shutdown of 1995.

I was working for the federal government at the time as a contractor. My unpaid leave went unpaid because the government never offered to compensate contractors. I disliked Republicans from the time of Nixon and later Reagan, but the shutdown and my going nearly bankrupt (I was living very close to paycheck to paycheck) caused me to hate them with a burning passion.

A passion that lasts to this very day.

[gopiscrap]

185. when my dad died because of the Vietnam War

[Sophia4]

186. Two events.

First, my father was a Methodist minister and had to comfort the families of men who died in the Korean War. I remember that he showed me the back page of a newspaper that had pictures of soldiers that had died in that war. My father was a pacifist for religious reasons. I will never forget the impact on on me of his talking to me about how sad the families of fallen soldiers were.

And then, a year or two later, when I was nine, I sat on my father's lap during the Democratic Convention and Republican Conventions of 1952. He explained everything to me. Back then, there was a lot of drama to a convention. I loved it. I have been very interested in politics ever since. I'm now 74.

[Rhiannon12866]

188. 9/11

I'd always voted, almost always for Democrats, but that day scared me witless and I realized that I needed to know a whole lot more about exactly what was going on in this country - and the world. I started reading and listening and researching and eventually found my way to DU in very early 2003 - in time for the lead up to the Iraq war. I've learned so much here, have become a news junkie, and I continue to learn something new here everyday.

[retread]

190. 20--1966--drafted

[kairos12]

193. 8--JFK's murder did it for me.