Are you more liberal/conservative now?

[indra]

I guess this is more for people who are a little older more than for the really young pups (but even the little ones can answer if you'd like!)...

Have your political and or social views changed as you've grown older? Are there things that you used to think were horrible that you don't mind now (no, I'm not talking about spinach)? Or things that you used to think were OK that you now completely oppose?

Yeah, this is vague, but I'd like to see what people come up with.

 

[A_Wanderer]

I am more socially liberal and more economically conservative.

I regret ever saying that suicide bombers were driven to murder by a cycle of violence, that socialism works that terrorism is driven purely by inequality in the world and US corparatism, that Chomsky was great and that The Awful Truth told it like it is. I was a fully fledged left wing moron.

The total horror of 9.11 combined with actually learning about the way the world works has shifted me strongly into the libertarian camp. I can look at some stuff I wrote only 4 years ago and cringe at it.

 

[pax]

It's difficult to define, because "conservative" meant a very different thing when I was young from what it means now (although I suspect that "liberal" largely remains the same). "Conservative" once implied small, nonintrusive government; fiscal conservatism; and (for the most part) nonintervention in foreign disputes not directly related to the national interest of the United States. Many conservatives today do not support any of those things.

But I'll take a stab at this. I was once entirely anti-abortion; although I remain so in theory, I do not support legislation that would take away a woman's right to choose. I was once entirely in support of the war on drugs; I now believe it's almost a total failure and support some very limited legalization.

On the conservative side, I believe we really need to put illegal immigration in check (although apparently W. doesn't think so, so maybe that makes me liberal after all), and I'm not as against guns as I used to be. I still don't like them, but I don't think we should wipe out the 2nd Amendment, either.

 

[LoveTown]

Well, I am more liberal on some issues and more conservative on others. I'm going to state some of my past and current ideas on things, this isn't to spark debate about those issues, so please don't attack me anybody lol.

For example, I used to believe in the death penalty, now I believe it is not up to a government to carry something like that out. I believe the dealth penalty is wrong.

I used to believe that in some cases abortion was ok. Now I am pro-life. Let me say this about it though, I am not a zealot and I do not hate or condemn anybody that has had an abortion. I don't walk in their shoes and it is not my place to judge them. My stance is simply my own.

I never used to REALLY believe in God or spiritualism, I definately do now. However, the God I believe in is compassionate and caring....not fire and brimstone.

I also used to be completely anti-drugs and now I think maybe at least marijuana should be legalized and controlled much like alcohol.

So, some issues have changed a bit, with some I've become more aligned with traditional conservative values. Some, I've become even more of a tree-huggin-hippie lol.

 

[verte76]

I used to be more of a hard-core leftist than I am now. My views are more moderate, generally speaking. I've changed my view of abortion. I'm against it in principle but I don't support laws to make it illegal. I think that would just drive it underground, and thus wouldn't work. I didn't used to oppose it in principle but that was before my conversion to Catholicism. That event, in 1988, changed just about all of my views.

 

[A_Wanderer]

Somebody willingly converting to Catholicism
/Im acting astonished

 

[verte76]

Yeah, I converted to Catholicism completely by choice. It was possibly the hardest thing I ever did, but it was indeed a choice. It took years before it really worked.

 

[Se7en]

i am a fully fledged left wing moron.

much more 'liberal' than i was as a teenager. they say it's the standard life cycle to be left-wing by the end of college and back to the right-wing by your 40s or something. i hope they're wrong. how depressing that must be.

 

[A_Wanderer]

right on, you must remember that if I sometimes go all out on somebody when they make a stupid statement I am really attacking myself in the past.

 

[sharky]

In '95, when I was in high school, a teacher asked us about homeless people. I said they choose to be homeless because they wouldn't get jobs.

A year later, I voted for Bob Dole.

So what changed? I would say the past four years have definitely made me switch from being in the fence/conservative to being a ball's out liberal. The big reason was living in NYC for the past four years -- directly seeing 9/11 and how Bush reacted to it. I supported him after 9/11 until things started to change -- the war in Iraq, still no bin Laden. Then the economy started going to hell. A year after 9/11, I remember reading a story in which an economist said the '02 recession had more to do with Enron and business scandals than the terrorists who attacked us. So I started educating myself on this issues and started to realize just how warped the Bush agenda was, at least in my mind.

I think another major reason is simply the fact that I live here. I've become much more tolerant simply because of the nature of this city. You never have any personal space and you're always sharing it with people that are in no way like you -- different races, religions, languages. I was out last night with some friends in Chelsea, which is predominantly a gay neighborhood, seeing guys walk hand in hand with their boyfriends. Four years ago, I may have stared a bit. Now, it's nothing.

My mom, a Republican, said I needed to leave Brooklyn because it's warped my political mind. I dunno...I like my political mind now than when I was in the burbs.

 

[verte76]

I'm a left-wing moron in a hyperconservative environment. Most of my friends are diehard conservative Republicans. I don't agree but I understand they believe in limited government. The problem with some modern conservativism is that it's really not limited government anymore, what with the Patriot Act and a record deficit. This makes me wonder if I'm not a closet conservative or something because I'm taking stands on these issues very unlike Democrats in the past. Weird.

 

[namkcuR]

I'm very very liberal. It is my opinion that even the left in America isn't left enough. Bush is a terrible leader imo and has made a series of very bad decisions as president. Anyway, pro-choice, anti-capital-punishment, anti-war, believe we should give way more money to Africa and other third world nations that are in grave need of it, in favor of building stronger aliances, working in an international community and not against it, being tolerant of all people regardless of any superficial criteria, view the patriot act as an outrageous violation of privacy, think airport security is an absolute joke, etc etc, standard liberal POVs. I'm 20 now, but I doubt I'll ever be anything close to the right.

 

[U2democrat]

i guess i'm too much of a "young pup" to say my political views have changed because they haven't. wait till i'm out of college and we'll see if i've changed.