Can you pinpoint the moment you became a serious *Liberal* thinker?

[Bullwinkle925]

I can . . .


my awakening was reading *The Jungle* by Upton Sinclar -

probably in my 13th/14th summer.

[triguy46]

1. Eat a lot of Spam since then? Seriously...

At my age "pinpoint" is more like a blunt object. 1966-1967, I was 15ish. BIL sent me issues of the SDS newsletters, the war was becoming insane, riots. I knew then that I was not of the GOP ilk.

[Bucky]

2. I will become one the day I start thinking seriously

Actually, my political awakening happened about the time I turned 18 & could vote. Until then I was sort of vaguely liberal & humanistic, and culturally democratic. But it was not until I was able to excercise my vote that I started to think thru what I believed.

[Bullwinkle925]

50. That is much the same as myself . . .

I'll start thinking series-ly whenever I grow up - hell, it's taking me 58 years so far in trying to!

:hippie:

[Roon]

3. When I came out of the closet

I was young and militant.

[Bullwinkle925]

7. Being both young and militant are good things . . .

wouldn't mind seeing some of that again.

[Fox Mulder]

4. The moment the Supreme Court selected Bush as President in 2000.

[Bullwinkle925]

5. Goddy-God , , .

aren't we still reeling from that one?


Definitely Orwellian times.

[Connonym]

37. That was when mine fully kicked in

I've been solidly a liberal since 1986, volunteering for campaigns and such but I didn't become outraged until 2000. Now I won't ever STFU about it much to my family's annoyance.

[Xipe Totec]

6. There was a time before?

As long as I can remember, and this goes back to when I was a kid growing up in Mexico, my cousins always told me I was too Americanized in my thinking...

I must have been 10 or 11 then...

My first serious outrage at the ways of the world was seeing images of Vietnam in my contemporary history textbook in 9th grade.

These pictures were actually printed in my history textbook (Mexican middle school):

[Bullwinkle925]

10. Yeah - I guess my query should really be one of transitioning from

childhood to reality??


:shrug:

[lost-in-nj]

8. OK

It was the day my baby brother came out to me
in the hallway of our home

crying, screaming and hugging


I DID NOT CARE


I always knew I didn't
but this sealed the deal

god

i miss him


:hi:


lost

[Pierre.Suave]

9. I did not have a moment...

it was a gradual realization and understanding of the nature of the world and people in it.

[begin_within]

11. I think it was Ted Kennedy's speech at the 1980 Democratic convention that won me over.

Even though I would probably never have become a R. anyway, I was not particularly committed to anything at the age of 20.

[LeftyFingerPop]

12. When I became seriously depressed.

I have always been a liberal thinker.

However, when I became depressed, I became even more sensitive to the suffering of others.

I was hospitalized for depression during the 2000 elections...not for long, but for a few days until some of my functionality returned.

They had a room in the hospital with a TV, and I remember watching the election returns with one of the asshole male aides.

Well, I knew that I disliked Bush, but not like I do today.

This aide would go in that room for hours and actually cheer whenever there was any positive news about Bush. I said nothing.

Concurrent with this, I was near a sweet old depressed woman in the hospital who barely knew where she was. This same aide gave her some meds, then looked right at her...HE LOOKED THIS SWEET OLD WOMAN IN THE EYES...and said..."your fucking breath stinks."

Well, it took 4 guys to get me off of him...and that was kind of a turning point in my life.

I get emotional now when I think about it...this fucker exhibited typical Neocon callousness...and I have been even more of a liberal thinker since this one incident.

Sorry if this does not make much sense....I'm very tired.

[otherlander]

14. I think it makes total sense.

In the end, it's not the intellectual, which creates medicine and bombs in the same breath, but the emotional which gives things context and significance, isn't it? I have some similar hospital stories I could tell.
:hi:

[LeftyFingerPop]

20. Yes....

it is the emotional, because when it hits you in the heart is when you truly understand.

I'm sorry you had similar experiences. I actually get frightened now when I think that I was there.

I hope you are well this evening.
:hi:

[Bullwinkle925]

26. I also think this makes total sense. . .

in a *Nurse Ratchett* kind of way.

It never ceases to amaze me when I meet someone with that much stupidity and lack of feeling for others.

[Lil Missy]

13. During the Clinton witch hunt.

I was furious with that and the turning of the Constitution on it's head.

At the point Gingrich forced a showdown that shut down the government payroll for a few days, I was ballistic, and have never turned back.

[Blue_Tires]

15. congressional takeover in '94

dark forboding

[MissMillie]

48. I think that was it for me too

though I was voting Dem long before that.

[Skittles]

16. when that bastard Reagan was running for president

I saw through his evil-friendly persona IMMEDIATELY :puke:

[ghostsofgiants]

17. Nope...

But then I'm more of a socialist thinker, so...

[Shine]

18. Hey, I take it you're feeling better now?

happy to see you posting, my dear. :hug:

In answer to your question: I have no idea.

[Bullwinkle925]

27. I am, thank you very much . . .

I just have to be very cognizant of what I'm putting into the ole gullet and all that jazz - crikey!!

:pals:

[SPKrazy]

19. In graduate school

in my social policy classes. We studied the damage that Reagan's policies had on the social safety net that had been put in place over the years. While not perfect, it was being dismantled by Reagan and his type.

My teacher was a good one and he sparked an interest in me about policy that I'd never had. Politics became important to me then when it had not really meant much to me before then.

Guess I was a slow learner or something 'cause I was 26 at the time and had voted in two presidential elections (for dems Carter, and Mondale) but really hadn't understood the differences between the two parties except that the Repukes seemed to be the party of the rich.

[Aristus]

21. After Newt Gingrich announced the Contract With America. Or as I began calling it soon after:

The Contract ON America. This was in mid-1994.

[Bullwinkle925]

47. You're right about that . . .

it was like taking out a *hit* on America, wasn't it??

[GoddessOfGuinness]

22. When I was living in Baltimore, and met a nice little old lady

who lived on her social security and had no home. :(

[huskerlaw]

23. There wasn't one specific moment

though I declared myself a Democrat at the age of 10. Not bad for a kid raised in rural Nebraska, eh?

Since then, it's been an evolution of thought, which is ongoing.

[Bullwinkle925]

28. Hey . . .

I was a *little blue dot in a BIG red state - Kansas* - and boy, did people look at me strangely - who gives a rat's arse?
I feel what is ethically correct and must go with that.

We can commiserate, for sure

[Mojambo]

24. I'm not a serious anything, but Zinn's "People's History" sealed me up.

Early 20's

[Bullwinkle925]

29. It's in my pile of *to be read* . . .

if and when I can ever shut down this blasted computer and get my life back.


:hi:

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

25. No. But I know it happened somewhere along the line.

[Bullwinkle925]

30. Thank Goddy-God!!

:yourock:

[khashka]

31. Third grade

My parents were cool back then and let me read anything I wanted. And that year I read all the classic feminist books. And it changed everything. I wasn't a little kid anymore. I started seeing what was going on around me. How women were treated, and blacks and gays. And decided I didn't want to live in that kind of world - but it is that kind of world, so I better do what I can to change it.

Khash.

[DarkTirade]

32. If by 'liberal' you just mean open-minded and someone who tries to be fair

then I was raised that way.

If you mean politically liberal, I didn't start paying attention to politics until high school.

[Bennyboy]

33. We used to have a beautiful old theater in Sacramento

The Alhambra Theater. The city in their infinite wisdom, had decided to sell the theater to developers of a Safeway.

This was a beautiful old theater. Pipe Organ, perfect acoustics. Saw many shows there over the years and loved the place. At the time The Alhambra was the queen of the Sacramento theaters, most like the Fox and others on k St had been torn down. So only the Alhambra was left.

And now the city was going to raze it for a Safeway. I worked on the campaign to save the theater. knocking on doors. Protesting on the streets. Mailing information etc. but the city remained adamant. we put on benefits etc, but nothing made the city budge, the Safeway brought in revenue but an old theater in midtown did not. So they razed it.

And it pissed me off then, just as it pisses me off today, that more people don't give a shit than do. but I remember what that corner was like before the Safeway. And I have never set foot inside that building since....

[QMPMom]

34. Back in the early 1970's, summer. Watergate

hearings were on and I became totally pissed off at Nixon and his gang. I was slowly becoming more socially aware, too, and it all dovetailed at that time. Voted for the first time on May 4, 1976 for Jimmy Carter in the Indiana Primary and have been a loyal Democrat ever since.

[NMDemDist2]

35. the summer of 1968 as I watched in horror the Chicago convention

i was 13

[drmeow]

36. Either my junior or senior year in HS

I wrote a term paper on Marxism and read the Communist Manifesto and some other books and realized that a lot of what he said made sense to me and I liked a lot of his philosophies (however, I was obviously well on my way given that I chose Marxism as the topic of my paper). Also, I remember my senior year in HS taking an economics/civics class and realizing that Reagan (elected 1 year before the start of my senior year) was going to destroy this country and put us back into a great depression (didn't know if would take this long). During those two years I transitioned from a subconscious liberal to a full conscious liberal.

[nomorenomore08]

38. Probably somewhere around 7th grade, when I became aware of the existence of the Religious Right.

I think the main thing that turned me so strongly against those guys, at such a young age, was their obviously repressive attitude toward sex. I saw such a position as hostile to my developing sexuality, and this is taking into account that I was and am STRAIGHT - if I'd been a little gay 13-year-old, I probably would've been even more vehement about it.

[Radical Activist]

39. Saul Alinksy

he did me in

[Trailrider1951]

40. Watching the civil rights marches in the early 1960's

I turned 10 years old the last week in November, 1961. We had just elected a new president. I saw people on the news marching and being beaten by cops, hit with water from high-pressure hoses, and menaced by dogs for the right to enjoy what my family enjoyed. I remember the 1964 march on Washington and Dr. King's powerful speech. And I remember thinking that keeping someone from voting or attending school or buying a house just for the color of their skin was just plain EVIL.

http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/aencmed/targets/video/T041750A.jsm







Oh, and for the record, I'm mostly white.

[zbdent]

41. Initially, I thought it was when I wrote on the cassette tape "Watch for an 18.5 minute gap"

taped from Richard Nixon's televised resignation ...

However, I think it was when the media decided to turn against Carter and hogtie him as he tried to get the hostages free from Iran and ALIVE ...

[stuntcat]

42. I was born this way I think

My mom was a social worker and my dad was a musician and they both grew up farming.. small poor farms, not the industries that come to mind these days.
Luckily I never rebelled much, it would suck if I'd got hooked in by Reagan :scared:

[Bullwinkle925]

49. wash your mouth out!!

you could never have been hooked by the Reagan-ites!

[NewJeffCT]

43. Watergate hearings & then the ERA amendment drive

and I was born in 1966.

First off, I got pissed at Nixon over Watergate because when I came home from school, the afternoon cartoons were interrupted for the Watergate hearings. What 7 year old wants to watch that?

Then, when I got a bit older in the late 70s and was hearing about the Equal Rights Amendment, I couldn't really comprehend why people would be opposed to equal rights?

[grannylib]

44. While listening to Nixon's resignation speech, while at summer

language camp in northern Minnesota. My parents were really active in the civil rights and anti-war movements, so I had a good upbringing *lol* and my dad was a Lutheran minister, so my politics were always connected to my faith life, inextricably linked...it was always really clear to me, even before I could articulate it, that we were in favor of civil rights BECAUSE we were Christian; we were opposed to war BECAUSE we were Christian; and in my little town, with its small church college, that was very much the prevailing attitude.
As I got old enough to really pay attention and look forward to the time that I would be able to vote, it just happened that I had spent a year and a half living in Europe due to Dad's job, and this was in 1972-73, and I heard a lot of opinion on Nixon and American politics/government while I was there, and so I started to get more interested myself, and the resignation speech is the one point I could probably highlight where I started to "grow up" as a political student and really want to be involved in a way that would make the country better.

[Hobarticus]

45. When Reagan made ketchup a vegetable...

Actually, my mother the union steward was ramping up for a strike right about that time, too, so it was a one-two punch. Seemed like a lot really stunk, at the time.

[BlueIris]

46. The day Bush announced troops would be coming out of the DMZ.

That's when I realized, "Oh, shit, he really IS trying to start WWIII! On purpose. It's all true, not just a blogworld conspiracy." This was not a good day (or night). The three months I spent registering voters after that were pretty good, though.

[av8rdave]

51. My "moment" took place over many months in the late 80s - early 90s

From my own little corner of the airline world, I watched the situation at Eastern Airlines deteriorate as Frank Lorenzo and his goons systematically destroyed the company and screwed its employees. As I read more and learned more about that situation (and Lorenzo's past), I saw how the administration of Bush I was aiding and abetting that prick in any way they could. There was a virtual revolving door between Lorenzo's businesses and administration positions.

As I became angrier with Bush's administration, I began to study more aspects of it, and therefore more of the history of the Republican party from the 70s onward. I started looking into their domestic policies (and their results) in detail. It was am eye opening experience. Up to that point, I had my opinions, wherever they came from, and never looked into the minutia of political news. After all, I already knew what was right! Suddenly, I realized what cruel, selfish, heartless people the Bush administration was made up of, and started to understand just how much harm they caused to those who weren't in their "club."

In November of 1992, I proudly and eagerly cast my vote for Bill Clinton.

[Inchworm]

52. It depends on what "liberal" means

I've always been eclectic. It was almost a necessary thing being the hustler I was in school. I sold everything from cinnamon toothpicks to hard stuff. As it turned out, football quarterbacks usually want the same things as the president of the AV Club.

As time went on I found that homeless people want the same thing as corporate executives.

I've voted smart since I was able, and I've always been progressive as in change stupid policies. That led to a "screw authority" mindset. Which led to me becoming totally politically active once I saw a police officer "dog kick" a sleeping man in the park, where I did my college homework, to tell him he couldn't sleep there. No warning or nothing, he just hauled back and kicked him hard in the back.

I almost got a felony charge out of that. Battery on a Police Officer. Fortunately, I was working with a political consultant in Miami who helped me out of that fiasco. I was in Vegas the next day waiting for tempers to cool.

I totally gave up on being active in politics when I saw, and was part of, the shit that politics is made of in 2000's election. I was still working for the consultant and was appalled at how each party tried to make votes say what they wanted them to at any cost. I lost faith in the process.

Sadly, 2004 went by without much notice for me because I felt the "parties" would do whatever again to skew things their way. Then I was pissed at the outcome.

And here I is. I'm as progressive as ever, pissed offer than a muther, and ready to make change happen in any way I can.

*whew* *breathes*

That was a lot of typing :P

:hi:

[Jamastiene]

53. There were two events that really stick out in my mind.

One was when I was in 6th grade. During recess, we were allowed to play records. I brought my Blondie album, Autoamerican to be played. One girl told me that Blondie was satanic and that if you played "Rapture" backwards, she was saying I love the devil. Naturally, I did it and heard nothing but a song being played backwards.

The other event was so similar, it's eerie. Flash forward to my 10th grade year in high school. I was in horticulture class, which was really just cheap labor caring for the landscaping for the school. We were griping about having to spread cow manure all around and being too hot. The teacher let us listen to the radio either to drown out our complaining or shut us up.

Prince's song "Little Red Corvette" came on and I said I loved that song. All of a sudden, a girl took her shovel and backed me up against a brick wall with the shovel on my throat. She said Prince was the Antichrist and threatened to kill me. I told her she was fucking nuts and I'd rather die than have to put up with her crazy talk. She then started kicking my ass, like I spent much of my school years getting my ass kicked. The teacher and ALL of the other students pulled her off of me.

The teacher gave me the decision on whether to get her expelled for that or not. I said no. That was when I realized I had compassion. I cried like a baby, but I took the high road. That was THE MOMENT I realized I couldn't be cruel to someone who obviously had mental issues. That was the moment I realized I could never be a Republican.

[BeachBaby]

54. That's a tough one to answer.

I grew up in a RW, fundamental Christian home. Everything I was ever taught (Bible, Republican mindset) never sat well with me from the very beginning.

But I guess my "moments" would have to be:

When John Lennon was killed. I was 11-12 years old at the time. I had already learned about JFK, RFK and MLK. I knew these men all strived for equality and "looking out for the little people". I saw John Lennon in much the same way. I realized that I saw the world, and my place and responsiblity in it, very much the same way these men did.

When I was 15 years old, I had to read "To Kill A Mockingbird" for a homework assignment. It broke my heart - and I completely related to Atticus Finch.

When I was 21 years old, I was on South Street in Philly. I was out with my Republican boyfriend, and one of my close friends, also a Republican. We had just left a comedy club, it was very late at night, and we were walking back to our car. It was very cold outside. As we were walking, I saw a scruffy, 40ish black man - he was wearing an Army jacket from the Vietnam War with his name patch still on it, but he was still very cold and trying to get warm by sitting near a grate. I pulled a $20 out of my pocket, walked over to him and told him that I hoped it would help him somehow. I didn't know what else to do. My boyfriend and my friend, however, reamed me out for the rest of the walk back - everything from "He's got legs - he could be working instead of feeling sorry for himself" to "What are you trying to do? Get yourself killed?" Sheesh.

Those events are the ones that stand out in my mind as the moments when I realized that I am no Republican. ;)

[regularguy]

55. I think it was while reading Atlas Shrugged...

I'm maybe 17, and I'm on the twelve billionth page of some John Galt rant and suddenly it hits me: this is just so much rightwing bullshit, I'm gonna be a liberal. At least that's how I remember it.

[unpossibles]

56. hard to say - one event which stands out is becoming aware of the Iran-Contra scandal

as far as becoming more interested in politics - that taught me that not everything is as it seems, and that Reagan and Bush were full of crap, and by extension, the GOP as well. I was about 15.

But when I think about it, despite some moments where I was still ignorant, I had liberal leanings before then, even if I did not understand that, or even the name for it. I remember when I was 13 or 14 hearing my grandfather - the kind of guy who says "we lost the second American Revolution, if you know what I mean.... - using the "n" word and me screwing up the courage to ask him to please not speak that way around me, that I could not change his beliefs, but that I also did not care to hear them. He called me a "god damn liberal" and I asked what that was, and he thought I was being a smart ass. lol. I also asked him if the word "liberal" had the same root as the words "liberty" and "library".