A Couple Of Questions: How Long Have You Been Involved In Democratic Politics...

[WillyT]

and are you currently happy with the way the party is going?

For me, I guess I first became aware of political things when I came home from the third grade to find my mom sobbing on the couch after the news announced that JFK had been assassinated. Our branch of the family tree had/has always been Democratic Party, and so I learned to pay attention during the 1964 Johnson Landslide over Goldwater.

And I was in Jr. High when MLK and RFK were assassinated in 1968, and watched with my family the 1968 Convention in Chicago. I also watched the 1972 convention, but was not able to vote myself until 1974 (after I had turned 18) in which I voted for Jerry Brown for Governor of California. Something, curiously I did again just last election.

I've voted pretty much straight Democratic ticket since then, and am not real thrilled (as many of you are well aware) of the direction the party is headed. Even though I enthusiastically supported Barack Obama in 2008.

Again... I feel I've been a lifelong Democrat, but I am TOTALLY disillusioned at this point it time.

How long have you been supporting the Democratic Party, and what are your feelings toward it currently?

:shrug:

[msongs]

1. since when there was a difference lol nt

[TBF]

2. Forever -

my dad worked in a steel mill and belonged to the union. My mom had jobs working in factories and also waitressing. As an adult I vote dem but have always been pretty convinced that both sides didn't care much about the working class. Obama's presidency, sadly, has made this more glaringly evident than ever before. Now I'm more interested in getting rid of capitalism all together, I think it's the only answer at this point.

[Lucian]

3. Since the 2000 election.

When I was old enough to vote.

And no, I am not happy with the direction of the party. I am a Democrat. I don't support Republican ideals like the party currently does.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. A few years behind you on the timeline, but close to your

experience and also your current disillusionment.

[shanti]

5. i've always been a democrat

just like my parents. the first time i was able to vote was in 1974 at age 19, jerry brown for governor (of california). after that, i got married, started a family, and politics went on the back burner during the raygun, *ush I, and clinton years. when baby *ush was selected, i went ballistic and since then, my eyes were opened and i woke up. it's been a roller coaster ride ever since. i am also disillusioned with the democratic party, but how many real choices do we have? :shrug:

*edited for typo*

[femmocrat]

6. Since junior high, I think.

I worked for a neighbor who was running for mayor. I recruited some other girls my age to hand out campaign literature in the park. :)

I can remember watching the conventions when I was in elementary school!

I really got hooked after I heard Hubert Humphrey speak when I was in high school. I saw Robert Kennedy speak in 1968 (although I was for McCarthy). I couldn't vote until 1972 when I voted for McGovern.

Today's party has little resemblance to the progressives I supported, but I am a life-long democrat and I'm not going anywhere else. They can carve a donkey on my tombstone!

[QC]

7. I campaigned for Mondale in 1984, at the age of nineteen.

Then, that November, I sat up and watched my party lose 49 states.

And I don't regret it a bit: Walter Mondale was a good man and Reagan was the source of almost everything that is wrong with America today.

[Fla_Democrat]

8. 1984, No

:smoke:

[21st Century FDR]

9. Since January 20, 1981

I sort of paid attention to the Nixon/Ford/Carter years as a kid, but that whole "hostages being released the very minute a senile old washed up actor was sworn in as President" thing really woke me up. Proudly cast my first vote against that son of a bitch in 1984. :patriot:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. I've been a Democrat since childhood.

I am very disillusioned at this time.

My feeling is that the further up the corporate ladder you go, the less democratic people get.

And the more they're owned by the corporations...

[Dappleganger]

18. Well said!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

20. Thanks!

[rug]

11. Clean for Gene

[Petrushka]

12. Does listening to FDR's fireside chats count? Even if I was too young to understand 'em?

My feelings toward the Democratic Party currently? ---> :mad: ---> So . . .

If I receive any more please-don't-bend "autographed" photos of Obama, Michelle, or the first family---requesting a donation, of course---I'm gonna put a stamp on the return envelope wherein shall be enclosed an autographed photo of me---requesting a donation, of course, to sorta tide me over until the next COLA.

[Orangepeel]

13. since Ann Richards ran for governor of Texas in 1990

How do I feel about it? Eh, it's pretty much the same as it has always been. Getting the party to work together has always been like herding cats. And, if I could get over the disappointment Clinton caused me, I can get over what's happening now.

[murielm99]

14. Since I was eight years old.

I helped my dad distribute literature for Adlai Stevenson.

I had people at my high school reunion who remembered me as the person who went door to door for local candidates. That was before before any of us were old enough to vote.

I did step back a bit during the years I was raising my children and working. But Bush made me so mad that I became active in the party again, even though I was busy finishing grad school at the time.

I don't know what to think now. If they can anger a loyal person like me, if they can make me question my commitment, I wonder how this party can survive.

[Walk away]

15. When I was 5 yrs old I got down on my knees and begged my Dad to vote for Kennedy.

My Mom was a Dem and my Dad a conservative Independent. My father worked long hours and my Mom used to tell him she would not vote so that he didn't have to. The idea was that they would cancel each other's votes anyway. Then she would load us up in the station wagon and go to the polls where she would vote. Poor Dad. I really don't think he ever caught on.

My Mom loved JFK and I can remember watching her vote for him. That night when my Dad came home I was so into it I cried until he promised to go out and vote for Kennedy before the polls closed. I think he actually went to the smoke shop and bought cigarettes but I was pretty buzzed about it at the time!

After that I joined LRY at fifteen and spent decades very active in Liberal causes.

They say that you become more conservative as you get older. I'm still left of your centrist Democrat but a little more accepting of the reality of living in a country half filled with the "Other Side".

[Ragnarok]

16. I was raised in the Party...

...in Peoria Illinois. I left for the duration of the Assault Weapons ban. I came back in 2003. I'll stay as long as we don't go off on stupid crap again. It's getting dicey again, but with different issues this time around.

[DURHAM D]

17. Since 1952 - but not as a Democrat..

I attended Eisenhower's kickoff event in Abilene with my parents, siblings, grandparents, cousins, uncles, aunts, great uncles and aunts. etc. You get it - everyone was a Republican. I traveled all over the state with my Grandfather in his new blue DeSoto to campaign for Ike. I was 7 years old.

I volunteered for Kennedy in 1960. I was disowned.

[demosincebirth]

19. Since 1960, and will continue to so.

[eridani]

21. Since 2003

Kucinich campaign. Had not paid any attention to electoral politics since 1968. Yes, I'm disillusioned, but too few progressive issue junkies bother with working on elections to make any other party a serious alternative.

[WCGreen]

22. I met Carl Stokes when i was about 10 at a local Italian festival...

First of all for soon to be mayor of Cleveland Carl Stokes to be at a west side Italian festival was really audacious...

He struck me in a way that hit me right to the heart.

The next year was 1968 and I was hit really hard when RFK and MLK were both killed.

I naturally gravitated to the democrats.

In 1976, I was the campus co-coordinator for Carter and then I was a page for the democratic caucus down in Columbus.

Between 1984 and 1988, all I did was vote as I was dealing with coming to grips with my alcoholism.

In 1989, i got involved with the Green Party and thought they were going to augment the democratic party but I lost interest when they seemed to be more interested in making a point than actually getting anything done.

In 1992, I ran for the democratic party's congressional seat. Mary Rose Oakar was running for re-election and she was caught up in the House Check scandal. The Plain Dealer endorsed me and I was instantly well known to the local democratic party.

In 1994, I was elected to be the treasurer for the largest democratic organization between New York and Chicago.

In 1995, I was elected to be the county board of elections as one of two democrats.

In 1996, I ran for State Senate.

By 2001 I became disillusioned with the party as it was structured and declined to run for reelection for the treasurer spot.

I started to be really upset with the way things were going but have never wavered in my voting history.

I still respect the party but we have to somehow break down that K Street Wall Street attachment or we will all be doomed...

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

23. 44 years.

[prairierose]

24. I was raised in the Democratic party...

my parents traveled for hours to go see JFK when he came to our state. I spent many election nights carrying supper to my Mom since she was always a poll worker as I was growing up. The first campaign I volunteered for was George McGovern and that was also the first election in which I voted. I worked in Party politics for much of the 80's.

I was not that happy with Clinton but I am desperately unhappy with the continued influence of the corporatists on the Democratic party.

We see the damage that has been done to our country since 1981 and since they gained so much influence in the Dem party, we have not made any progress to clean up the mess.

[Forkboy]

25. Got into politics at age 14 with the No Nukes movement in '82.

First National Dem vote was Dukakis.

Not happy with the party at all. In general, we're a party of ineffectual cowards.

[WillyT]

26. Thank You Everbody !!!

:yourock:

:hi:

:loveya:

:kick:

[salin]

27. favoring (as a kid) or actual involvement?

to the first - going back to the McGovern (pro) Nixon election - mostly following my parents persuasion.

Active interest - Mondale v Reagan.

Active participant (beyond voting) local, state and national in the Dukakis v Bush 1.

Last metric = 23 years.

Have always vacillated between politics and pragmatism v politics and idealism. Probably a little more on the cynical pragmatic side.

Very disillusioned. As I stated elsewhere on a recent thread - the recent debt ceiling theatrics make me have to acknowledge that we have move past the politics of pragmatism to the politics of corporatism. I *get* the pragmatic reasons, but no longer accept them on their face.

Looking back I think that the politics of pragmatism merged with the politics of corporatism back under Clinton. For a long time I viewed it as the merger of pragmatism and opportunism (ala the Third Way). Now I see something much more insidious - and depressing.

[Marr]

28. About ten years, and no-- I have never been more dissatisfied with the party's leadership.

[Jim Lane]

29. I handed out leaflets for LBJ

I'm unhappy with many of the choices Obama has made. To be fair, though, I was unhappy with many of Carter's choices, and even more so with Clinton's.

This may not count as "disillusioned" because I didn't expect an Obama presidency to be a kucinich presidency. I did, however, have some hope that the first Northern Democrat elected since JFK would be a genuine liberal President. The biggest disappointment is that, given the economic conditions at the beginning of 2009, Obama had the political room to go much more FDR-ish than he did. Instead, he obsessively pursued bipartisanship. The result was a loss of effectiveness, which led to the loss of the House, so the rare opportunity that existed then is now irretrievably gone.

[WinkyDink]

30. Since I raised my hand for JFK, age 10, Girl Scout mtg. Oh, and wanted my parents in '56 to vote for

Ike! I liked Ike! :-)

[Historic NY]

31. since 1970.......locally & 72 nationally.

[JoeyT]

32. Clinton's first term was the first time I voted for a president

since that's when I was first old enough to vote in a presidential election.

Maybe one day I'll get to vote for an actual Democrat. ;)

[WillyT]

33. Kick !!!

:kick: