How long have you been following politics?

[HardWorkingDem]

How long have you been following politics?

[ingac70]

1. I've followed politics since I was eight.

28 years.

[Mojambo]

2. Dipped my toes in the water around the 1996 election

There was some late night cable round table show of young people talking politics and there was this right winger on there that used to piss me off SO BAD.

Then I kind of got disillusioned during Clinton's second term and stayed away until 2000.

[enigmatic]

3. My oldest brother made me watch Nixon's resignation in 1974

I was 11; I was hooked.

[DaveJ]

4. Ever since the unthinkable happened in 2000. n/t

[rwenos]

5. Dear God, It's Been 48 Years!

I stuffed envelopes in a local headquarters for the Kennedy campaign in 1960. (My mother worked on the campaign, and brought me along.)

I was seven. :-)

[Kire]

6. Actively?

When the supreme court decided the election for Bush against Gore in 2000.

I've always had an interest in it, since I was a little kid and my Dad insisted on watching the nightly news in the 1980's, instead of letting me watch cartoons or whatever I was watching most of the other times of the day I was at home.

[SmileyRose]

7. 2004

I suspected 2000 was stolen but didn't really have anyone to talk to about it and didn't have internet yet. All I really had was what was on regular TV news and in the printed paper. 2004 was so obvious even my 92 yr old grandma knew it. I have 2 people who carpool with me and I drove that day, we had to stop and pick up granny en-route and she was spouting off in the car - which started the conversation with my carpoolers that has continued daily since.

Which is how I found the DU and a few other internet websites.

[Bobbieo]

8. I voted for FDR in 1944.

[pnorman]

10. That beats me! I was "Gladly for Adlai" in 1952!

I wouldn't characterize myself as a "Democrat", since I was a lot further "left" starting from 1948 to the present. I haven't really veered rightward since then, but I've "mellowed" quite a bit. I'm reading with great interest (and some wry amusement) some of the "ultra-left" condemnations of Obama. But I'm unmoved.

I recently wrote (sorta tongue in cheek) to an anarchist friend, that I hope the Anarchist Central Committee (?) doesn't expel me for counter-revolutionary tendencies, but I'm now fully supportive of Obama. To my great surprise he wrote back: "So am I!"

pnorman

[TahitiNut]

9. Eisenhower v. Stevenson ... 1952 ... so, 56 years.

I wore an "I Like Ike" button. :shrug: I was in the 4th grade.

[chemp]

11. 1976 Election

I was in 6th grade, and REAAAAALLY wanted Carter to win!
Happily voted against Reagan first chance I got!

[MrModerate]

12. Stumped for McGovern, 1972. First time I got to vote. n/t

[Maine-ah]

13. since I was six, when raygun got elected

my parents are/were (Dad, rip) life long democrats.

[Rhythm]

14. Since '79, when the hostage crisis became news... i was 13.

The fundie-Baptist school i went to at the time thought this was a sure sign of the pending Apocalypse, and had the news on in every classroom each day.

[Bluzmann57]

15. Since right around Watergate

It was fascinating to a lad like me to see the self destruction of a guy my parents despised. And the hearings were on TV so people could actually see Government at work. And in '72, my parents worked their asses off for the McGovern campaign, including hosting college kids at the house sometimes. Pretty cool for a 14 year old boy with raging hormones to see college girls, even though the parents made 100 pct. sure that the 14 year old boy always had some sort of adult around at all times when interacting with said college girls. But the political process was fascinating to watch and participate in.
One note though, it seems dirtier now than it was then, even though nixon was among the sleaziest ever. But the repubs learned something back then and have refined their cheating techniques. Or maybe I'm just older and "wiser" now.

[Massacure]

16. Since the 2000 election.

I remember discussing the whole recount debacle in my middle school social studies class the day after the election.

[ileus]

17. Since I was 8 and Jimmy Carter was President.

[ghostsofgiants]

18. About 7 years.

I was 16 when 9/11 happened, so that really got me interested in politics, but I had paid a little attention before then.

[hoosier_lefty]

19. since 1972

I was in second grade. I didn't like Nixon.

[Vinca]

20. I've always followed politics, but not as intensely as the past 8 years. nt

[LeftishBrit]

21. To some degree, since I was a child in the 70s

I remember Thatcher from when she was still Leader of the Opposition, and Reagan from when he challenged Ford in the Republican Primary. I hated then then! - and ever since.

[malaise]

22. My mother and my aunt told me I made my first

political statement before my fourth birthday. Clearly I was repeating the anti-colonial views of my dad and his sister.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

23. I was a red diaper baby. Things will be better after the revolution.

[slackmaster]

24. I started in 1964, got serious in 1968 and have never paused

My views have shifted in many ways, but the perspective makes things more and more interesting.