How did you become politicized?

[Leftist78]

What was the event in your life that first galvanized, angered, motivated, or just plain made you think more about the political world and your place in it? I started thinking about this after a post I had on another thread.


"When I first started paying attention around 17 or 18. I was fairly left of center, but pretty uninformed. I voted for Clinton in '96 when I was 18, but it was mostly because he seemed way cooler than Dole. Later I realized I should have voted for him, but I should have been holding my nose when I did it. One of the bands I liked, Rage Against The Machine had a picture of a bunch of books in the sleeve of their Evil Empire cd. I got couple of the books (don't really remember which ones) from the library, but under the same subject was a little book called "A People's History of The United States". That book changed my life. From there I became a voracious reader of all things progressive, and when I finally got a computer in '98 I was all over the progressive web sites. I joined progressive groups, started going to my local UU church (really the only place in my hometown where you could find progressive thinkers), and generally got involved."

[Warren Stupidity]

1. Vietnam war.

As a draft age kid the war changed my entire view on the world.

[Vadem]

27. I'm there with you, too! I used to drag my two young sons to..

all the demonstrations in DC against "Tricky Dick" and the VietNam War. My brother, who had a scholarship to VPI, enlisted at age 17; he was in the Khe Sanh siege. Thank Goodness, he survived it and returned home with just a couple of purple hearts! We still have our arguments over the VietNam war! I just keep telling him that I love him and we supported all the troops, but that war was wrong, to send our kids over there to die for the "domino theory" (a bunch of bullshit propagated by McNamara, Nixon, Johnson, and the other fools in DC!

[displacedtexan]

2. The mean kids on the grade school playground, shouting...

"Nixon! Nixon
Is Our Man!
Let's Throw Kennedy
In The Garbage Can!"

When I asked why they were doing this, they said that
Kennedy was a Catholic and a N-word lover.

That did it for me. I went home and told my parents how mean
those kids were, and they explained that that was one of the main reasons we
were a family of Democrats.

I was lucky to have a Dem family.

[Mikey929]

40. Kids

Having kids changed me. Now the right-wing Nazis werent't just attacking me, they were coming after my kids too. That was too much. I have a 6 year old and 2 year old. Believe me, they are going to grow up learning about the Constitution. The real one, not the copy that Georgie has that looks like swiss cheese it has so many holes cut in it. They are going to learn the fundamental value of taking care of each other, and diversity, and peace. I will not let the wing-nuts destroy the next generation of children.

May the children learn and prosper.

[displacedtexan]

41. I raised a bleeding heart liberal daughter.

She's sweet, kind, and an absolute joy!

And she's no Billy Budd, either.

Just keep on singing your children an honest lullaby, Mikey929.

[Mikey929]

44. Thanks

Congrats on your daughter. Must be a true joy to have in your life.

I don't believe in indoctrination to one side or the other. Exposing your kids to the truth is all that is necessary, and they will see it for themselves. Let's see -- who wants to deny minorities access to higher education? Who wants to spend trillions on weapons of war while we can't even feed our own people? Who wants to force women to have children they don't want? Who wants to declare the President a de facto king beyond the reach of our elected representatives?

When you set out the clear and honest differences between the parties, the choice is not only obvious; it is morally required to be a liberal.

[Comicstripper]

3. The 2000 election.

The 2000 election. I was twelve. I knew we were Democrats, and I remember asking my mom what the difference between the two parties was.

"Well, the Democrats care more about helping people, and the Republicans care more about money and business."

"Oh," I said. "Then why would anybody be a Republican?"

I still ask myself that question.

[KarenS]

4. I was fairly apolitical until I watched the Gore/Bush debates,,,

then I was very interested in seeing Gore win. I watched alot of CNN's coverage of the 2000 Election "recount" and related shenanigans,,, then I was furious!! After Sept 11th, I put those feelings aside and basically supported going into Afghanistan but when they started beating the War Drums for Iraq, I began to attend public peace demonstrations for the first time in my life.

[Lucky Luciano]

5. I was always right of center because I wanted to make a lot

of money as a kid. I still want to be successful in that way, but not if means sacrificing happiness and being good. I think I am on that path, so all is well. However, when I was in high school, the Iran Contra thing was going on and it seemed shady to me. Big flag number one...but still not politicized. Too comfortable to care. Similarly, through Clinton's years - I could have voted for him, but did not vote. When * ran against Gore, something seemed really rotten in the US. Something about a political dynasty like that seemed extremely dangerous. I did not vote, but watched the elections. I was appalled at what happened. I knew my gut was right. * was not to be trusted and had evil in his heart. Then there was 911. That is when I started reading the news everyday. That is when I became really interested. After reading and perusing, I discovered just how bad these scumbags are. I did not approve of * shortly after 911 as many had. As far as I could tell, it was on his watch. He far too reactive and not proactive. Then I saw the march to war....it smelled really bad - putrid to say the least. Well, it has been pretty well downhill from there and I don't need to tell you why. I voted in 2004 to defeat the motherfucker. He scammed his way into office again. I voted in November to destroy the Republican Congress. Finally, the armor of lies was breaking, but I still believe that the fraud in the elections continued....they just didn't execute the fraud properly because of the eleventh hour revelations against the thugs. They simply did not have time to fix the elections more than they already had. Now we have a lot of work to do to get things back on track.

Now I am definitely left of center. Socially far left. Economically, I am mildly to the left, but not so much that it could prevent my eventual success because I do have a good feel for working the system. I am not very well off, but I have amazing opportunities - no thanks to * though. It would probably be even better under other circumstances.

http://www.impeachthemotherfuckeralready.com

[TheCowsCameHome]

6. RW talk radio, and how terribly hateful and bitter the right is, for one thing.

It tends to have an opposite effect from what it seeks, and thankfully it came back to bite them in the ass last month.

[Leftist78]

18. That's interesting

I use RW talk radio as fuel. Whenever I'm feeling apathetic all I need is a good dose of hate radio and I'm right back out there.

[BlueManDude]

7. Hill-Thomas hearings. n/m

[BlueIris]

60. Interesting. Say more about that. nt

[booisblu]

8. Oddly enough,

I didn't pay much attention to politics at all until the 2000 elections. A couple of weeks before the election, I had a very strange, very intense dream in which Al Gore won..but he wasn't happy. After the whole thing unfolded and the idiot boy had the presidency handed to him unfairly and illegally, I jumped right into it. Even my song writing has become political. I was asleep, but once awakened, you can never go back.

[Lucky Luciano]

9. Take the blue pill and you will find the truth and never be

able to go back. Take the red pill and believe what ever it is you want to believe.

[LWolf]

10. My first memories:

Listening to my (white) grandparents worrying about their friends, a (black)couple active during the civil rights movement. My grandparents were afraid their friends were going to be victims of violent retaliation.

My mom taking me to hear Angela Davis, who was speaking at a local women's center. 1971, I think. I was 11.

My mom's conversation with friends and the music they listened to; Joan Baez, Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, etc..

The assassination of RFK.

The end of the Viet Nam War.

Watergate: it happened when I was in 8th grade.

Reaganomics, not "trickling down" to me.

Living, as a young adult, in a RW community and learning to despise the conservative mindset. Marriage to a fundie family that extended that trend.

Homelessness and hunger during periods of my childhood and young adulthood.

Most recently? The so-called NCLB, decimating my profession.

[chieftain]

11. By sitting at my family's kitchen table and listening to

the conversations of my Mom,Dad Aunts and Uncles. They discussed local politics with as much fervor as they did national elections. I learned of the goat and rabbit factions of Kansas City electoral wars. As an Irish Catholic, I learned about how Al Smith was unable to overcome religious prejudice but John Kennedy was triumphant. Over that table, my Dad and I fought about the Vietnam War and became estranged on politics foe years before reconciling. Politics has been in my blood from the beginning and I am proud to say my wife and I have made politics a central point of discussion around our kitchen table. Our son has the type of grounding in issues that I was lucky enough to have.

[havocmom]

14. Same for me, but in 1960 it hit locally- we had moved and Dad put off registering

As the deadline grew near, Mom told him if he failed to register, she would vote for Nixon. He launched himself up and went to the fire station, came home with proof of registration for Mom.

I needed to understand that power to get my procrastinating old man moving. Got curious about this Nixon thing and why Dad was so powerfully opposed to it ;)

Then, in '61, international politics got real intense, even for little kids. Enough tension to make the very young understand that global and local are all connected so ya better pay attention!

[chieftain]

16. I love the story about your Dad. Speaking of international

tensions brings to mind the Cuban Missle Crisis and going off to school wondering if we were actually facing the end of the world. I can truly say that period was the only time I saw my Dad fearful.

[havocmom]

26. Made even more tense at our house due to big brother on ship

that was part of the blockade fleet. He said looking at the coast of Cuba reminded him of Southern Calif. Think he said that to calm my mother's fears.

He did tell a funny story about Castro shutting off the water to Gitmo (back when it wasn't a dirty word). There were lots of Cuban fighters around the area of the base. Hot weather, dry duty. The base CO had all the ships working to distill water. Had tank trucks full of the stuff taken out to the fence lines where the hot, tired and THIRSTY Cubans were holed up with guns at the ready. Gave personnel orders to take trucks and jeeps out to the fence lines and WASH THEM, using the desalinated water from the ships via tanker trucks. Told the boys to enjoy, have water fights... My brother said it was interesting time. ;)

Duck and cover drills at school until our knees were scabbed over and somebody finally asked just how hiding our little faces under our chairs would actually protect us from atom bombs and radiation... Really, I just wanted to know, cuz everything I heard my uncle tell about his days in the White Sands area then later in Nevada just didn't add up to a school desk helping much.

Bad little havocmom. Bad girl!

[seabeyond]

12. i have always been interested in surrent events/politics. impeachment

is what started the obsession or need to watch closely. 2000 election is when i knew i had to stay on top of all and the continous lie to know the truth, find it thru all the garbage.

[Smaze]

13. When i began to observe that power is the intent behind most government affairs

I became politicized at a young age - 13 0r 14 years old - when i noticed the difference between what people say and what people do. I saw the inconsistency with national rhetoric and real-time reality. Ran away at 14 and started squatting with anarcho-pacifists. Since then it has been a long journey.. painful yet rewarding. I now live at a Mennonite farm in rural Illinois and will be heading to Palestine/Israel in January with CPT on a peace delegation.

[Not Me]

15. Two words: Ronald Reagan

From Roosevelt to Carter, every administration-Republican as well as Democratic- advanced policy that recognized minority rights and promoted the public good. From Health care to education to tax policy, Reagan was the catalyst that began to dismantle forty-five years of progress.

In his term, the chasm between rich and poor widened and homelessness became a national disgrace. His refusal to even discuss AIDS, led to the delay of research and the needless, painful deaths of tens of thousands of Americans.

I thought America had learned its lesson electing an empty suit as President. But I guess we still have a ways to go.

(edit: typo)

[BlueIris]

61. Reagan screwed us.

Preach it!

[undeterred]

17. 16 months of unemployment/no health insurance during early Bush admin

Absolutely no safety net for a single, childless woman. I emailed the entire House and Senate 4 times and got 5 senators to respond to me. (Dems, of course: My own senators Feingold and Kohl, also Daschle, Wellstone, and Sarbanes.) Also I became increasingly suspicious after 911 and when Bush started a war just for the hell of it.

[Leftist78]

20. Nothing like

some hard times to make people see the scum for what the really are. If you don't have the money for the $500 a plate dinners, or your story can't help them politically, the Republicans (and sadly some Democrats) don't have the time for you.

[undeterred]

23. I was a Democrat before that

but I never really "got" how callous and uncaring the Republicans are towards people fallen on hard times until I was one of them.

[Gregorian]

19. Nixon. But Bush pushed me over the edge.

I paid attention, because I'm from politically aware parents. But I essentially snoozed until Bush. Then it was like the neon light in the Garfunkel song. Snap! What? Oh shit, what did I let happen? Look at the mess our inattention has allowed.

My best friend in high school had every Oliphant caroon about Nixon glued to every square inch of his bedroom. Most of the kids in my school were really bright and on top of things. In fact my friend is now a phd in botany. And that is the result of living in a progressive town.

That is what we need in America the most. Schools.

[QMPMom]

21. The Vietnam War, My Lai Massacre and Nixon.

[LeftishBrit]

22. Maggie Thatcher

Some of my earliest political memories involve her as Minister of Education in the 70s; and her desire to cut everything, perhaps most famously free school milk. I suppose as a schoolchild, the Minister of Education seemed to be our 'boss' in a more direct way than other politicians. One of the first political debates that I was aware of, was whether to keep eleven-plus selection or move to comprehensive schools; and she seemed to me at the time to be against comprehensives (though in fact I later learned that she had approved more comprehensive re-organizations than any other minister of education; she just didn't fund them properly!)

I don't know how, as my knowledge of other politicians and party politics was very limited, but I was somehow aware from the beginning that she was not only in the 'wrong' party, but worse than some others in the same party. Then, when the Tories were in opposition, she challenged Heath successfully for the leadership, and took over the party - and I just KNEW this meant disaster. (It did. And how!) I got hold of a poster of Maggie, and drew horns on her.

Then Reagan tried to do (from my point of view) just the same thing to Ford as Maggie did to Ted; and he lost - YAY! WE'VE GOT RID OF HIM!!! (Little did I know).

[BlueIris]

63. She...got rid of free school milk?

Oy, my modern European history needs a brush-up.

[election_2004]

24. Conservative Dems and wingnuts bashing homosexuality

The tag-team "loose alliance" of conservative Democrats along with Republican wingnuts who take turns loudly and shamelessly denouncing and undermining any efforts to gain equality for LGBT people.

Conservative Dems do it to keep queer people dependent on the Democratic Party establishment.

RWers do it because they truly hate us.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

25. The Vietnam war, the Kent State shootings, Nixon and Watergate.

Got involved in the antiwar movement in college around 1966, worked on Gene McCarthy's primary campaign, participated in some demonstrations, worked for McGovern in 1972, watched the Watergate hearings with horrified fascination; never thought we'd ever again see anything as bad as Nixon...

[antiimperialist]

28. After reading my dad's old Dominican magazines

I must have been 10-12 years old.
My father kept hundreds of magazines that narrated the era of Trujillo, right-wing dictator backed by the US for 30 years, and the US invasion of my land after we chose a democratically elected president in 1965.
the pictures of torture shocked me
Then I heard everybody say that Democrats were less likely to mess with other countries for no reason, and are compassionate to Latinos in the US, and this is how I came to like Demcorats.

[proud patriot]

29. When the USSC betrayed the Constitution in 2000

x(

[Debs]

30. I have told this story before

I was always somewhat political but what really galvanized me and made it personal was when the three Maryknoll Nuns and lay church worker Jean Donovan were raped murdered and burried in a shallow grave in El Salvador.I was devestated. Then Alexander Haig apparantly to show that there was no level of moral depravity the Raygun administration would not sink to accused these good women, who only went to El Salvador to alleviate some of the misery we were helping to dump on that country, were running guns and had exchanged gunfire with the animals that raped and murdered them. I couldnt beleive it so I really studied the situation in Central America and sure enough we were on the wrong side of all three major conflicts there. From then on I really studied our foriegn policy. I love it, I feel that we must stand up for what is right. If we dont stand against what is being done that is wrong, with our tax dollars in our name we become complicit. That can never happen.

[SmellsLikeDeanSpirit]

31. 2000, I was 14.

I knew nothing of the parties, so I just sat and watched. I agreed more with Gore than I did with Bush. Clinton was also popular in our house so I rooted for Gore even though I couldn't vote. November 7, 2000 changed a lot. I was so pissed by how Florida went down. It snowballed from there.

[Eurobabe]

32. When fuckface stole 2000.

TOTAL OUTRAGE!!!!

[Odin2005]

33. Iraq.

The shinannigans leading up to the invasion infuriated me, I was a Junior in High School at the time.

[orleans]

34. a high school teacher took us on a fieldtrip to chicago where we attended

an impeach nixon rally

but everything got kicked up a notch with gore/bush

and it got totally kicked into gear with 9/11

(and the fuckhead's involvement with his saudi pals, and the whole cover-up)

[Eugene]

35. My father was politically active locally

when I was very young, around 1970.

He would not stop talking about how bad Richard Nixon was.

[NMMNG]

36. Dumbya got elected

:puke:

[AtomicKitten]

37. Vietnam lit the fire -

and the 2000 election threw gasoline on it.

[welshTerrier2]

38. protest music

the song that probably first opened my eyes that things weren't quite as rosey as we were being taught in school was a song called "Eve of Destruction" ... prior to that, popular music was Beach Boys singing about dating or Motown singing about dating or rock and roll singing about dating ... and then the music of Dylan and many others and a few years later, the classic Buffalo Springfield song "For What It's Worth" awakened the "youth culture" ...

during the Chicago 7 trial, Abbie Hoffman was asked what line of work he was in ... he responded that he was a "cultural revolutionary" ... i think using pop youth culture to build a political movement swelled the masses of the anti-war movement and drew millions of young people into the political process ... we seem to have nothing similar in place anymore ...

once the war in Vietnam got really cranking and the music of the day shaped my attitude toward it, politics became a major part of my daily consciousness ...

so, for me and many in my generation, the music, the war in Vietnam and especially the draft brought us into the political arena ...

[Vinca]

39. I remember watching the 1968 Democratic Convention on

a black and white television, but I didn't become obsessed until Dear Leader was crowned.

[crim son]

42. I married a conspiracy theorist

and decided to start doing my own research to counter his claims. The rest is history.

[mwb970]

43. Kent State, May 4, 1970.

Four dead in Ohio, thanks to our Republican governor. A real eye-opener for a college kid!

[benEzra]

45. The 1994 Feinstein gun ban...

and the five years or so of grandstanding by Feinstein, Bush the Elder, and other repub/DLC types that led up to it. I turned 18 in 1988 and was politically clueless at that time, but the specter of someday having guys with machineguns and black body armor at MY door for no good reason scared me into becoming first politically aware in my early twenties, and then finally prompting me to speak out.

That experience shaped my views on a lot of other civil liberties issues as well. I used to be pro-War-on-Drugs (not anymore), pro-three-strikes (ditto), took a jaded view of the ACLU's aggressive defense of the Bill of Rights (not anymore), and probably would have been pro-Patriot Act and crap also, had I not had that initial brush with unreasonable laws based on moral panics.

Ignorance and fear almost never result in good legislation. I'm trying to think of a counterexample to that statement, and I can't come up with any.

[hijinx87]

46. 1981. reagan fired the air traffic controllers after they went out on strike

thus, the public safety became a political tool. I was horrified.

[slackmaster]

47. Unchecked destruction of natural habitat for development

The City of San Diego was and is in the pockets of land developers.

[Vidar]

48. A cop tried to run down a good friend. I helped said friend run

for city council.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

49. I always was. Politics were discussed in my family around the

dinner table like a sports event. Family parties were the same way. All my aunts and uncles lived and breathed Democratic politics.

My maternal grandfather was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in both 1952 and 1956. My father was a Democratic precinct captain in Chicago, and my father's oldest brother was a Democratic State Senator in Illinois from 1956 until 1972.

My father despised Richard Nixon. One of my earliest memories is of wearing, what seemed to me at the time, a huge "Kennedy for President" button on my grammar school uniform. I also remember how elated my parents were when JFK won in 1960. It really was a big deal then for an Irish-Catholic to be elected President of the US. Hell, two generations back both sides of my family were among those who were greeted with signs that read "No Irish Need Apply".

I asked my Dad in 1973 when the shit really hit the fan over Watergate, why he despised Nixon as much as he did. His simple answer was this, "Darlin, he ran the most disgusting Congressional campaign I'd ever seen against a great lady, Helen Gahagan Douglas in 1946 and won".

I really do believe being a Democrat is in my genetic make-up. I can proudly say I've never voted for any Republican candidate since I began voting in 1972 and I never will.

I never had a whole lot of respect for them anyway, but after what C+Augustus and the crowd of cretins around him have done to my beloved country in the past 6 years, I never will....

[IA_Seth]

50. General Clark

I attended a speech he gave just prior to the announcement of his candidacy in September of 2003. I had always been 'interested' in politics, but never involved. I had heard Wes speak a few times on TV (CNN probably?) and heard of his possible candidacy...and being the greedy, selfish, first-in-the-nation Iowan that I am I thought I should probably go hear him speak while I could.

I went, and he changed the way I looked at a lot of things. He talked about personal responsibility, being the change that you wanted to see happen. It was my first year attending a caucus and I joined the County and District Central Committeees, volunteered in a few campaigns, helped with a local initiative to change our city government, was selected to serve on a community planning committee, and overall I just go sucked into politics and public service.

I never thought going into that speech that it would affect me as much as it has, but I am sure glad I went, and am eager to see him get the same opportunity to change the country the way he changed me!

[MrCoffee]

51. August 5, 1981 - St. Ronnie fired my dad.

[littlebit]

52. In 1990

My mother who was and still is very involved with the democratic party took me to a fundraiser. It was a fundraiser for the democratic candidate for governor of Texas. I had never really listened to any politicians before but that night I was completely spellbound by Ann Richards. I wasn't old enough to vote for her in 1990 but I did in 1994.

[ProudDad]

53. Bob Dylan

I was sitting in a room at Bancroft Hall at the U.S. Naval Academy listening to "Masters of War" in early 1964; with Viet-Nam looming in my future.

I looked down and realized that my little blue suit qualified me as a tool of those "masters of war" and also realized that I did not want that, that I was politically a Pacifist...that I was not about dropping napalm on innocent civilians for Lyndon Johnson...

I soon resigned.

As Howard Zinn says, and as I (thankfully) learned before becoming the "professional murderer" we all were training to be; "war NEVER works!"

[proud patriot]

54. I'm so proud of you for resigning

You found my mom and made me instead :D

:woohoo:

[janx]

55. That's so sweet!

;-)

[ProudDad]

57. Yep

Much better use of my time... :) :bounce: :bounce: :loveya:

[progressive_realist]

56. Monica-gate/Whitewater

That's when I realized right-wingers were dangerous, tantrum-throwing children who for the good of our world must never be allowed any power.

[BlueIris]

62. Ah, Whitewater. The scandal that wasn't.

And I'd say "children" is a great way to describe them all.

[aaronbees]

58. Reagan era madness did it for me on being politicized

Some of my strongest teenage memories are of being lugged to demonstrations against the U.S. inolvement in Central America. My dad and stepmom were both active in Witness for Peace so quite knowledgeable about the tomfoolery of the Raygun machine down there. That taught me at an early age that our actions as a nation weren't always in others' best interests, not to mention our own, and that we wielded a dubious and duplicitous hegemony over world politics that impactd people's everyday lives in ways that would shock my friends in the suburbs. My dad did some theater work with homeless people on Chicago's north side in addition to some counseling, and that was an entrance into a whole world of folks whose lives were much different than mine. Also, growing up in Chicago and the 'burbs I was keenly aware of the politics (particularly racial politics) going on in Chi-town. Was totally enamored of Chicago's first black mayor, Harold Washington, who will always be an inspiration to me. Therein are the roots of much of my idealism.

[BlueIris]

59. Bush announcing that he was going to take troops out of the DMZ.

That's when I realized that everything I'd ever read about the conspiracies was true--they wanted decades of war, and intended to destabilize every single last potential international catastrophe in order to keep the battles raging as long as possible. The next morning, I had a clipboard and was actively registering voters.

[More Than A Feeling]

64. I have two, the first is social studies in elementary school

and the second is the Dean campaign.

In elementary school, I learned that supporters of women and minorities are on the right side of history. Sadly, I drifted rightward during high school and early in college. Dean shocked me back to my senses.

[Upfront]

65. When John Kennedy was elected president.

I was just getting out of high school then(1959) and could not find a decent job. Under Ike if you had a good job you were doing fine but if you didn't, to bad. You couldn't even join the army as it was full. I was married and they didn't want married men, to costly. The 1st thing Kennedy did was lower interest on home loans which started the ball rolling to job growth. I had been raised Republican, big time. Kennedy showed me that a president can make a difference and I have never forgot or wavered in being a Democrat since. Every time the rethugs get control we the people get screwed. I should also say that Ike was 50 times better then Bush.

[BlueIris]

66. Great post!!

I wish we could nominate individual posts for the Greatest Page. :-)

[Mrs. Ted Nancy]

67. Archie Bunker and All In The Family

The men in my family were a lot like Archie Bunker, loud and narrow minded bigots. But to their credit, they opposed the vietnam war. Rob Reiner, or should I say Michael Stivic, shaped my political views at the ripe old age of 7. I was a very serious child. I've been a liberal ever since.