What event solidified you as a Dem?

[TheReligiousLeft]

Strangly enough it was John Mc Cain who made me a Dem. Specifically the fact that his brand of Republicanism was destroyed by Gdub*. When I saw Bush* make him out as an unpatriotic cancer lover I knew the Republican party will never have me as a member. I think if John had won I would have become an Independent.
Now that I've smeared my soul upon the screen how about you guys. What was it that changed you from, "Yeah, I guess I'm a Democrat" to "I AM A DEMOCRAT!!! HEAR ME ROAR!!!"?

[hippiegranny]

1. the hijacking of election 2000

i was a voting dem up to that point, but after that i was pissed and mobilized!

[realFedUp]

2. Hill v Thomas

enuf said.

[asjr]

18. Dem

Ditto

[Metatron]

35. Me, too.

[SharonAnn]

58. Anita Hill vs Clarence Thomas. Before that I had left the GOP

over Reagan and his anti-environment, anti-woman administration but I still called myself Independent.

Hill vs Thomas made me stand up and say "I'm a Democrat".

[Caution]

3. Birth

lucky enough to be born with an IQ over 20, that was enough.

[TheReligiousLeft]

11. Hmmm... I think that might be a bit unfair

I think there are plenty of smart people who perfer individuals to ideology. I know the reason I voted for Clinton (Nic Kids choice, '04 will be Prez. election number 1 for me)was because he seemed like the kind of guy I'd like to hang with. That said there is a reason most College professors are liberal...

[proud patriot]

4. Being a teenager in the eighties

Watching reagan and bush sr...grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

JFK learning about him helped too...

[TheReligiousLeft]

16. I think the early 0's will have the same effect

Junior* will make tons of people my age angry and liberal!

[proud patriot]

49. I hope they are paying attention

:hi:

[TheReligiousLeft]

52. I know I am, and all of Eugene is

But then again Eugene has always been paying attention

[Renew Deal]

5. Disagreeing with almost every...

republican position since 1988. I was 12 then, and I feel almost the same way now.

[LanternWaste]

6. The little known Progressive Student's Union

In 1988 I was (re-)attending college and saw some guys handing out fliers protesting the food vendor. I took a flyer and was invited to the following evening's "Progressive Students Union". I went and before ya know it, I had chucked my knit ties and slacks in favor of blue jeans and hippie-chicks :)

(By the end of that semester, I began chairing the University Chapter of Amnesty International. It was the stuff I learned from that organization that really opened the door to politics and discourse for me.)

Edited for spelling

[TheReligiousLeft]

Cool, Student organizations are great

I'm PR guy for the Dems here in Eugene. Also I just got a thing about AI meeting on Wednesday.

[janekat]

7. Kennedy (before I could vote) then Clarence Thomas hearings n/t

[deutsey]

8. Carter in '76

I was in seventh grade and for some reason I couldn't quite understand I was overjoyed that he won the election.

[sandnsea]

9. My birth, JFK,

Bobby. I don't know exactly, I've just always been a Democrat. I suppose it's helped that the Republicans have done a great job verifying they're the party of greedy corporate assholes!

[FlashHarry]

10. Birth.

Always have been.

[MoonRiver]

12. SELECTION 2000, which I will NEVER get over,

:mad: nuff said.

[salin]

13. initially genes, then - disgust with Reagan.

Born a dem. But that isnt enough - one sib turned 'dark' at least 10 years ago, the other votes dem but is rather apolitical.

Me, disgust with Reagan policies from early on - pushed me from being a dem - to being an active, vocal dem.

[laura888]

76. me too - Reagan solidified it

I don't think I had a firm understanding during Ford or Carter (before age 16)... My dad was a democrat because he worked for the state and got his funding cut by repubs.

But Reagan was the clincher - my reaction against him was so strong - so clearly the republicans were for defense and such blind allegiance to the almighty dollar (but at the same time claiming christianity). No question after Reagan.

[Art_from_Ark]

85. Reagan was the clincher

I can't remember ever voting for a Repug before Reagan, but after hearing and seeing that snide SOB berating everything I believed in, and seeing how the Repug party in general was fielding some of the dumbest candidates possible (like Frank White in the 1980 Arkansas gubernatorial race), I vowed never to vote for a GOPer

[xray s]

14. Gulf War #1

Anne Glaspie giving Saddam the green light to invade Kuwait. Bush thought he was going to stop at the oil fields, but he took the whole thing. A sargeant on CNN telling our troops that Saddam had plenty of our weapons to use against us, made in the USA.

That proved to me they are evil oil sucking bastards.

[Enraged American]

15. Back in 2000

I didn't really care who won the election. I think the policy of nominating vice-presidents should be abandoned because it makes for very tepid campaigning. And the selection of sleazeball Lieberman as running mate really made me not give a s---.

Fact is, I didn't hate Bush back then. He preached for an isolationist foreign policy and wanted to spend some of the surplus on tax cuts. I had no clue he was going to be so evil that calling him a Nazi is almost an insult to Hitler. I had no clue he was going to cut taxes WHILE starting wars, which is beyond stupid.

After Clinton's horrible trade policy I was looking for a change in the trade policy. Although Bush was pro-trade, because Buchanan is anti-trade I thought he might bring some change. I thought wrong.

The only thing I hated about Bush were his constituents (good "Krischun foke").

I didn't vote then.

When I saw the entire Democratic Party suck Bush's prick, and heard of the civil liberty violations and detentions caused by Ashcroft, as well as FOX News's French bashing, I shifted. I didn't shift "Democratic" because I believe that a slimeball Democrat is no better than a slimeball Reprick. I just shifted left, and that's why I support Kucinich.

[TheReligiousLeft]

17. Very very good answer

Really, I like it.

[Enraged American]

21. Thanks.

I didn't expect that kind of response.

[TheReligiousLeft]

28. Welcome(nt)

[maggrwaggr]

97. "calling him a Nazi is almost an insult to Hitler" ROTFL!!

Man that's a good one. I'm gonna steal it!

[eyesroll]

19. When I was 9, I made a campaign poster for school...

Reagan/Bush '84. (I was given a choice, but chose what everyone else chose). I showed it to my grandmother, and she praised the artwork and told me, "We don't vote for those people."

Needless to say, it stuck.

[imax2268]

20. Ever since GHW Bush...

ruined it the first time...I never really voted until then...I started voting for dems ever since...

the last election pushed me that much further into polotics...and has made me a stronger democrat...!

Let's go dems...no matter what candidate you support...we need to get these crooks and liars out of the white house...!

[kcwayne]

22. Richard Nixon's Era

Kent State
Secret bombing of Cambodia and Laos
Watergate
Crucification of McGovern with lies

[TheReligiousLeft]

26. McGovern?

Man, all I've taken is foreign history.I need to take some US history. I've hear the name, but what exactly happened with McGovern?

[kcwayne]

41. George McGovern

was campaigning against Nixon on an anti-war platform. McGovern's running mate was Thomas Eagleton. The Nixon administration orchestrated the release of Eagleton's psychiatric records, which cast both McGovern and Eagleton in a very bad light. McGovern then drafted Sergant Shriver (Maria's Shriver's (Arnold's wife)is related, I am not sure how).

The basis of Watergate was to acquire more info to paint McGovern's campaign in a horrible light. Like they hadn't already been down and dirty beyond all reason.

George McGovern is a WWII hero, a bomber pilot that flew 30+ missions over Germany where the loss rate of pilots was greater than 50%. He knew the horrors of war, and the folly of empires built on militarism. He fought the Nazis while Nixon was cooling his ass in college. Yet Nixon painted him as a weak, mentally ill coward, and the crap stuck. McGovern was slaughtered in the election. (sound familiar?)

[TheReligiousLeft]

48. Shit

Watergate sounds familiar, McGovern loosing does too. The overall picture does, but... Shit. That is crazy. Thanks for the info.

[SharonAnn]

63. Sargent Shriver is Maria's father.

His wife , Eunice Kennedy Shriver, is her mother.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

36. yup. The Pentagon Papers especially. All those Vietnam-era upheavals.

[Bluzmann57]

43. Yes indeed

Good grief we're old! lol. But seriously, my parents actively campaigned for Mr. McGovern in 1972, and while we were raised to have minds of our own, my sis and I both took mom and dads guidance. Nixon ruined any small chance there ever was of a republican in our house. I am proud to say that my daughter is a good Liberal Democrat too. And we're Christian to boot! "How can Liberal Dems like us be good Christians?" Sarcasm off

[Redneck Socialist]

23. Smoking way too much dope...

as a youth almost made me a libertarian. All kidding aside, I worked as an environmental activist for several years and came to appreciate that, on the whole, the dems are far better on that issue. I went on to work on several Democratic campaigns and directly for the Democratic party, but the real kicker was the "vast right wing conspiracy," and the Clinton impeachment. I would vote the Osama/Saddam ticket if they ran as Democrats before I would vote for a repub.

[knight_of_the_star]

24. Fort Hood, 1998

When I found out the kind of sewage that Bush and Bob Barr said about Wicca and the fact that the GOP did nothing to condemn them, I knew that the best hope for this country lay with the democrats. I refuse to be burned at the stake, YOU HEAR ME? I REFUSE TO BE BURNED AT THE STAKE!!!

[Padraig18]

32. LOL!

If that wouldn't do it, nothing would, I s'pose. :P

[knight_of_the_star]

38. Exactly!

Up until I heard about that, I didn't care about politics. Like quite a few pagans and Wiccans I knew at the time, politics was considered by us to be "dirty" and "beneath us". That changed my (and a lot of other people's) mind about that because I don't like the idea of a wannabe witch-hunter in the White House.

[TheReligiousLeft]

39. Witch hunter

Hmmm... Maybe the elder Bush could use his tracking skills to find some WMD's now...

[xJlM]

25. Nixon, Raygun, Raygun, and Butch

I was only seven years old when Nixon was elected, but my father quickly taught me to hate him like our red-headed neighbor. I was 19 though, when Raygun was elected for the first time, and I got to see first hand what some of his policies did to the less-fortunate among us.

Ford was an imbecile, another unelected republican, but he was halfways harmless (unless it involved him harming himself). I still don't fully understand, though, the payoff between Nixon and Ford, and the investigation of JFK's assasination.

[Art_from_Ark]

86. Ford was on the Warren Commission

The Warren Commission concluded that Oswald was a lone assassin, although lots of evidence was pointing in the opposite direction.

Who knows what really happened?

Another possible explanation is that Ford could have been chosen by Nixon because Ford was viewed as "impeachment insurance" (that is, who would want a klutz as President?)

[Lindsay]

27. Another Dem since birth here.

My first school mock election was for JFK.

(But I think that and my love of baseball are both genetically inherited.)

[queer outlaw]

29. Jr. High School - social studies

When I was in Jr. High School, my social studies teacher was also my neighbor. I had access to a world of knowledge through him, more so than others because we could "talk over the fence."

We studied the hideous labor standards of the early 20th century and the awesome programs initiated nationwide under Democrat presidents after the great depression. Now that my mother is 80 years old, relying on social security to pay the bills and needing the assistance of her family to afford the medication she needs to live, I thank (insert name of Higher Being here) for these programs. Democrats have always been progressive thinkers and challengers of the Institution to bring about change for those among us who have the least.

I was born gay, but I wasn't born a Democrat (that seems ridiculous!). I learned to be a Democrat at the same time that I learned about the equity of fairness, and the benefits of the community that fairness brings.

[TheReligiousLeft]

31. Come to think of it teachers help out a lot

I remember my Economics teacher when I was a Junior. He posted a sign on his door. "No New Texans."

[queer outlaw]

42. No new Texans ...

LOL! :) I'd welcome the Dixie Chicks, though ... as well as Molly Ivins and Jim Hightower

[TheReligiousLeft]

44. Wouldn't we all

Wouldn't we all.

[Padraig18]

30. John F. Kennedy

You may or may not know this, but (please don't laugh) in my part of rural Ireland (where I was born) even the meanest farmhouse has 3 photographs prominently displayed in the 'best room': The Pope, Eamon De Valera and John F. Kennedy. These are usually lit with a candle or two.

I could recognize John Kennedy's picture before I could my own grandfather's, my late mother used to tease, so it is natural that I should now be a Democrat :)

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

33. Newt Gingrinch and the impeachment

That's when I learned the art of coalition politics, and why Nader in 2000 was so frustrating - but I blame Bush for stealing the election, not the Greens.

[Padraig18]

37. I am charitable, up to a point

I have forgiven the Greens for what they did in 2000, because it is only right that we should forgive each other, but I have NOT forgotten. *shrug*

[mb7588a]

34. Being liberal is innate -- but being a democrat...

is rational. :D

[spooky3]

40. Vietnam and job discrimination

[eileen from OH]

45. I don't know that I AM a "solidified Dem"

although I get closer every election! Yep, I've voted for individual Republicans before, though trended much more Dem.

What really galvanized me was oddly enough, No Child Left Behind. It is entirely based on the premise that there are teachers/schools out there who somehow don't care and they need to be whupped into line. And the answer is MORE TESTS??????? More tests that cost precious dollars that schools need?? Bill Gates is exactly right - ask any teacher what would help him or her and it won't be more tests, it would be smaller classes and schools.

That, plus the 2002 election when the Dems rolled over and waited fro Bush to scratch their bellies and particularly what they did to Max Cleland.

Hmm, maybe I am solidified after all!

eileen from OH

[Jim Sagle]

46. Whitewater.

[spooked]

47. My parents being KIND people...

that's how Democrats are born.

[laruemtt]

51. i come by it genetically

thanks ma and pa. have always voted dem but actually flirted with the "greenery" in '00 but came to my senses in time when i realized the gamble wasn't worth the risk. so, lessee, nixon? raygun? bush I? no, chimpee has sealed it for me for the rest of this lifetime :grr:

edited to fix year cuz i'z tired!

[eileen_d]

50. When Reagan won in 1980

I went to bed (at age 10) feeling depressed. I don't think I knew why at the time. But hey, wasn't I right?

So I chalk it up to luck and a good upbringing.

[Lizz612]

53. Getting OUT of Catholic School

:Not to be construed as an anti-catholic post:
I was at the most conservative catholic school anyone has ever heard of, think pro-life, pro-death penalty, Latin mass, the whole thing was like 1453. Now I have always been a democrat, going on lit. drops since before I could walk, but I failed a class, and almost failed two more, and Catholic school was my reward. When I got out, and went back to a left of center public school, I realised how much I disagreed with them. You could say I snapped out of a bit of a daze. It changed me from "Yeah, I always vote for Dems." to "Get those cheap-labor, racist, homophobic, :meanies: out, and lets get someone with some guts, some brains, a spine and a heart, IN!!"
And DU helped!
That's my story.

[gristy]

54. I've been a dem since I was born

always voted dem. Became more politically active after *'s stolen election in Florida. With each outrage over the past 3 years, my interest and activism is raised notch.

[truthseeker1]

55. the manufactured war was the turning point for me

Getting laid off gave me the TIME (which turned out to be an OPPORTUNITY) to re-evaluate life and my values which - combined with the aftershock of 911 - caused a major shifting in my worldview. A simultaneous shifting in my religious views also contributed to this shifting in my political and worldview. Then the leadup to the invasion of Iraq really catapulted my awakening. That's really what it was....I just woke up and started paying attention. Now I realize that so many people are just going through the motions of life, being distracted by other things. They don't value their role in this democracy (what's left of it) and I'm afraid the majority of these people won't realize it until it's too late.

I come from a christian, conservative, military, repug, Montana family and it's truly been an awakening to emerge from the GroupThink of FOX, Rush, Hannity, Savage, etal. Now it's as if all of that thinking was a lifetime ago. A previous poster mentioned something about Dems being born with higher IQs. I don't think it's so much a matter of intelligence. It's how you are raised and how distracted you become with our society's ideals -- materialism, capitalism, the drive to succeed (both financially and professionally) to consume, to acquire, to show off, to have a certain image. Some people are simply a product of their environment and thankfully, it IS possible to eventually overcome that. I think each person's evolution happens in its own time. I have KPFK/Pacifica Radio (Amy Goodman) to thank, as well as alternate news sources on the internet for helping me in my evolution from patriotic American to truly compassionate HUMAN.

I'm now really more of a Green than a Dem and I'm not registered with either party. I will most likely register with the Dems in January so I can vote in the primary (unless they open up the primary to Independents). But no matter who wins the nomination, I'm voting against Bush (unless the nomination goes to Lieberman, in which case I'll just stay home and perhaps start making my plans to move to Canada!!!)

[TheReligiousLeft]

67. Another wonderful response

I like your answer because you don't just say "Oh, I'm smart" instead you explain why Republicans are Republicans (FoxNewsThinkGroup and caught up in materialism). Anyway, I'm impressed, although I hope you will stick up for Lieberman if need be (although I understand if you don't).

[bonrev]

56. Former Repug

I was a lifelong republican, who voted Democrat in 1996 cause I didn't like Dole. Then Gingrich and his crew decided to 'get' Clinton, no matter what it cost. Well, at that time, my son was on a ship in the Persian Gulf, and every time they'd bring out new charges against Clinton, something else bad would happen over there. They didn't care what happened to our servicemen (and still don't) as long as they could get Clinton.

They had the gall to insinuate that I was WRONG for voting for Clinton, that they had the right to overturn a free election cause they didn't like him, no matter what the people said. I have not voted Republican since, and never will again.

[GOPBasher]

60. Congrats!

On seeing the light. :bounce:

[GOPBasher]

62. And oh yeah..

Welcome to DU. :)

[ikojo]

57. My mom was a single mom raising a bunch of kids....

I grew up working-class with a very strong class consciousness. I knew that the only way to change things was to support a party that supported working people and that is NOT the Republicans or the DLC (oh wait they aren't pugs they're DINOs).

I also remember watching the Watergate hearings on television when I was a kid. I was hooked.

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[JohnKleeb]

59. me being cocieved

[woofless]

61. Birth

and then the Nixon presidency.

[Upfront]

64. Strike

The company where I worked caused a strike. We were out three months, it began to open my eyes. I became active in my union as a result of that strike and that was a great experience and education. This all happened in 1968. I have been a Democrat since then and I will remain a Democrat. :toast:

[The Lone Liberal]

65. Being born

was the event that made me a Democrat.

[Bucky__Badger]

66. On the night Reagan was elected I began having recurring nightmares

I was only 15, but I was scared as hell. The nightmares continued for about ten years, but my Dem loyalties have remained. Truth is I always leaned dem... my parents were both activists in the '60s.

[DrWeird]

68. when Khristian Konservatives trying to ban AD&D from my school.

Seriously.

You could have had my goofy ass di when you pried them from my greazy, cheetos-cheese covered hands.

[TheReligiousLeft]

69. Wow

You feel as strongly about D&D as I used to about Magic the Gathering.

[robbedvoter]

70. The coup 2000. On Dec 13,I registered Dem and roaring eversince

[TheReligiousLeft]

71. cool (nt)

[Dulcinea]

72. Reaganomics.

And Dan Quayle as VP.

The economy was as bad then as now, & I was an unemployed, angry recent college grad. I remember thinking, "Why does this overpriveleged, no-talent frat boy get to have one of the most powerful jobs in the world?"

I'm still asking that question today about Boy George.

[srubick]

73. The 60's

Growing up in the 60's near the Mason/Dixon Line provided a clear choice. Become a winner a make the world a better place or become a loser and live in the racist past.

[sendero]

74. I was a Dem....

... then I backslid into Reagan.

But when Iran-Contra came along, that was the final straw for me. I started paying attention and realized that most of what Reagan's detractors said was basically true. Of course, Reagan seems like a fond memory compared to the destroyer in the White House now.

I don't think I'll backslide again :)

[IranianDemocrat]

75. (s)election 200

.

[im4edwards]

77. Vote 18

political activism actually made something importent happen. pretty cool.

[TheReligiousLeft]

78. Empowerment helps a bundle

2002 was my first time voting and I helped put a Democrat in as Gov. of WYOMING of all places!

[im4edwards]

92. thanks for voting, I wish more 18-20 years olds did

that part has been a little disappointing.

[Melinda]

79. Three events:

Clutching a tiny infant dying from malnutrion in the heart of the worlds bread basket and wondering how this could be? How can this be?I was 15 years old.

Growing up during the 60's and losing my sweet young love and best friend to the killing fields of Vietnam. I was 16.

The murders of RFK and MLK.

The deepest of unimaginable scars irrevocably burned into my psyche, none of which will ever heal. I am long grown with adult children of my own and I still wonder - How this can any of "this" be?

[grasswire]

80. from 1987 to 1993...

...I worked in Washington as writer/editor for a conservative whose name is a household word. A "bornagain" Christian who dabbles in do-gooding. I thought I was do-gooding, too, and then I came to understand that Christian conservatives use code words to make people think they are filled with compassion and sacrifice, while the true agenda is the building of a partisan power base.

That's it. I had to quit my job as a matter of conscience, and went through a bitter period of disillusion, reflection and study. I'm a Dem. I don't see how any person of conscience can be anything else.

[wyldwolf]

81. Easy - the failed coup of '98!

Before then I was liberal but paid little attention to politics.

[noiretextatique]

82. being born to two african-american parents

who grew up in the segregated south. switched to the green party seven years ago, but still support democrats in most national elections.

[Zorra]

83. Conception.

:dem:kucinich

[lancemurdoch]

84. repression and economy

I would say the thing that started it is the authoritarian nature of Republicans. More police, more jails, more federal agents, more military, they always seem to want more people around to tell people what to do, put people in jail, invade another country or whatnot. And they always want to make laws tougher and tougher, it almost seems to me what John Calvin tried to do in Geneva.

That's what started me on the road, but what really nailed it for me was the economy followed by 9/11. 9/11 and what followed afterwards, plus the moribund economy had a catalyzing effect I'd say.

[quaker bill]

87. Nixon

He was a crook. Those that have come along since just reinforced the impression. GWB has put an exclamation point on it.

[yellowdog]

88. Watching the news on the civil rights movement

in the 50's and early 60's. My father, the original Yellowdog, put the whole thing in a political context for a very young, very confused child.

[VOX]

89. Civil rights. Kennedy. King. Kennedy. Vietnam. Watergate.

Since the 20th Century, the Democratic Party has been more in tune with issues for the greater good, rather than ensuring the wealth of the individual.

This is a potentially amazing country, and it should be so for *all* Americans, not just a privileged few.

[UTUSN]

90. Love? n/t

[union_maid]

91. Birth first and Clark, a few decades later

I always voted Democrat. I did vote for a Republican once, but it was one of those weird local elections where nothing is what it normally is. However, in all those years I never felt motivated to register as a Democrat. I'd registered as an independent when I was young which was a time when there were still liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats and never felt enough conviction about the primaries to make sure I could vote in them although I'd be near hysteria rooting for the Democrat in the general. I just changed over my registration so I can vote for Clark in the primaries this time.

[not systems]

93. Nixon and Vietnam

Followed by Reagan, Iran-Contra, James Watt, Rita Lavalle,
Ollie North, Iraq War One, GWB and the "halcion" speech, Newt
Gingrich, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Ken Star.

For starters.

[carpetbagger]

94. Iran-Contra, then the field in the '88 GOP primary, then '94.

I had hoped that Reaganism would go with Reagan, and thought the moderate Yankee wing would again take over, and try to balance the budget while retaining the best the New Deal and Great Society had going for it. Once I came to the realization that the best candidate in the primary was Bob Dole, that was it.

Even in the first years of the Bush administration (I voted for Dukakis), I still kept hoping against hope that I'd be proven wrong. I liked the no-net-wetlands-loss thing, I liked the appointment of Souter, but the Latin-American killer thing really bugged me, although I supported the invasion of Panama on the grounds that Noriega was trying to keep a democratically elected government from taking office.

The rest (Thomas, economic mismanagement, bungled diplomacy, and finally the 1992 campaign) is history. Even in 1992, I voted for Connie Morella in the general election.

Starting in 1994, I have not voted for a single republican for state or national office, either in Maryland, West Virginia, or Texas (although I admit to protest voting for a 3d party candidate in the 1996 WV governor's race). I think the last time I voted against a democrat was in '00, when one of the dems running for county commission beat his kid up at the local bowling alley.

So the process was gradual, but the Gingrich revolution was the event that made me glad to be in the forefront of the Jeffords revolution.

[maggrwaggr]

95. When Reagan declared war on the environment in 1980

and I realized that the republicans were taking great irrational glee in simply destroying the environment that we all have to share just to piss off the environmentalists. For some reason they despised environmentalists.

This just didn't make any sense to me. How can wanting clean air and water be a partisan issue? If you come and shit in my front yard, that's a bad thing, right? If you're a farmer and you till the earth so that it all runs into the river at the first rainstorm and you no longer have any topsoil ..... well, that's stupid, right?

It's just common sense to preserve our air, water, land, etc. Yet these guys wanted to destroy it just out of spite.

Then came the lies. They just started lying right and left.

So I decided that these people were dangerous, stupid, and mean, and I realized that I would forever hate them because of it.

And now they've gotten even MORE dangerous, stupid and mean. And they need to be stopped. As in eradicated.

[Ilsa]

96. Several things, esp. the Packing of the Courts

and what that does to our rights;
also Iran-Contra (Oliver North, you freaking convict!);
and trickle down economics.

[kayleybeth]

98. I became a Democrat

a few months after my youngest daughter was born. She was extremely ill when she was a baby... ran up almost a million dollars in hospital bills. Our insurance company sent us notice that they were dropping us. Fighting an insurance company on behalf of a sick child should be enough to turn anyone into a Democrat, but it was the fact that only Democrats would listen to me when I called the state legislature that did it for me. I changed my registration and have voted Dem ever since.

[TheReligiousLeft]

99. 100 posts!

Hey, I've posted something and got 100 responses for the first time. Feels kind of good, and even better I got to learn a lot about all of you!

[L4d]

100. Legacy Democrat

My family has been Dem since Jefferson formed the party. Unfortunately, this has sometimes meant being Dems when Dems weren't quite as evolved in their thinking as they are now, but we've stuck with the party for over 200 years, regardless. My grandmother used to tell us how her grandfather never got over Tilden being robbed of the Presidency in 1876, and he would rail about it anytime he had a bit too much bourbon. And now I have the dubious honor of seeing a Dem robbed of a Presidency in my lifetime. I do hope to be a bit more dignified about my outrage with my grandchildren (if I ever have any).

[Girlfriday]

101. I became a Democrat many moons ago..

...my Mom & Dad were - good a reason as any I guess. :)

[fabius]

102. Election 1972, McGovern.

I looked at McGovern vs Nixon (was 18 then and just registered for the draft) looked at McGovern, knew a lot about Nixon, and that did it.

My parents abandoned the Republican party in 1964 over Goldwater. (They voted for Nixon in 1960. My earliest political act as a first grader was to get in a fight with a kid who liked Kennedy). Then they worked for Gene McCarthy in 1968. Always been pretty political in our family.

I was kind of lukewarm until the Reagan years when I got active and got to be a "angry liberal patriot" after two years of Bush*t. All the stuff I can read on the net nowadays has got me pretty well radicalized.

[PassingFair]

103. I had always considered myself a liberal,

but I didn't really become a capital "D" Democrat until I heard Howard Dean's speech in SanFrancisco. He made me proud to call myself a democrat! He urged me to do what I could to take my country back, and for the FIRST time, I volunteered to work in a political campaign. And there are many, many more just like me. I can't wait till we hit the sidewalks enmasse!

[alfredo]

104. Tailgunner Joe McCarthy did it for me.

He was the personification of evil in my eyes. I wanted no part of him and those who allowed him to do his deeds.

[fabius]

105. 'Course according to one authority it's decided at birth...

According to W.S. Gilbert: ;)

SONG--PRIVATE WILLIS.

When all night long a chap remains
On sentry-go, to chase monotony
He exercises of his brains,
That is, assuming that he's got any.
Though never nurtured in the lap
Of luxury, yet I admonish you,
I am an intellectual chap,
And think of things that would astonish you.
I often think it's comical--Fal, lal, la!
How Nature always does contrive--Fal, lal, la!
That every boy and every gal
That's born into the world alive
Is either a little Liberal
Or else a little Conservative!
Fal, lal, la!

When in that House M.P.'s divide,
If they've a brain and cerebellum, too,
They've got to leave that brain outside,
And vote just as their leaders tell 'em to.
But then the prospect of a lot
Of dull M. P.'s in close proximity,
All thinking for themselves, is what
No man can face with equanimity.
Then let's rejoice with loud Fal la--Fal la la!
That Nature always does contrive--Fal lal la!
That every boy and every gal
That's born into the world alive
Is either a little Liberal
Or else a little Conservative!
Fal lal la!

[JasonBerry]

106. Coming of age in the sixties........N/T

[jbm]

107. I'm another Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas Dem.

I wasn't anti-Dem before that,and I always voted,but I wasn't firmly rooted in any party. The day they confirmed Clarence Thomas I knew the repubs would never get another vote from me. Course now I can't believe it took me so long to see the light.