General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe older I get, the more liberal I become. How about you?
I used to hear all the time that as one ages, one becomes more conservative. I am now nearly 64 years old...and in the last 10 years find that I am truly a lefty leftist.
It's been just the opposite with me -- I never became more conservative as I aged. I have come to the point in my mid-60s where I do believe that I am as Democratic Socialist. I vote a straight Dem ticket and am a registered Democrat, but geeeeeeeeeeez, I feel like I am standing in left field looking at a party that is more conservative than I remember thinking about Eisenhower.
When I hear someone say that Obama is a liberal, I truly wonder what the heck gave him/her that idea. I'M A LIBERAL...and I sure am a ton farther to the left of Obama.
I am proud of being a liberal, a VERY LIBERAL liberal. How about you?
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no_hypocrisy
(54,855 posts)Now that I'm older and wiser, I'm progressive.
Hepburn
(21,054 posts)Nice summary of how I feel.
mac56
(17,819 posts)
Howler
(4,225 posts)YES!!!!! I was raised in a liberal household too but as the years go by I am becoming even more left then I was raised.
I also seem to be getting too liberal for the existing Democratic party. 
CrispyQ
(40,932 posts)Ditto.
The party was more liberal than I was, back when I first voted in '76. It's moved right & I've moved left. I'm much more liberal & the Democratic party looks more like the Republican party of the 50's. 
Howler
(4,225 posts)Or it would be if it wasnt so bloody destructive!!!!!
Greybnk48
(10,717 posts) 
SharonAnn
(14,170 posts)that they were doing nothing for me and a lot against me. Then I started looking around and realized that I was against the Reagan Republicans on just about every issues. So, I declared myself Independent (one step at a time) and eventually realized that the Democratic party represented my values better.
And, as time has gone on, I get more and more "liberal". Part of that is just that the political environment has shifted so much to the right and I have not.
duhneece
(4,505 posts)Maybe we become more compassionate as we experience (ourselves or through people we know & love) all the ways we can hurt.
paulk
(11,587 posts)it's just that the playing field has shifted so far to the right that it just seems that I'm more liberal...
Old and In the Way
(37,540 posts)I was probably a moderate Democrat in the 90's...and not nearly as jaded about politics as I am today. The solutions to fix this country are not rooted in conservatism...that will surely make things worse. I'm probably a lot more of a Social Democrat today. If the opposition wants to label me a Socialist, I'm OK with that, too...because that makes them Anti-Socialists. And we all know that nothing good happens in a society controlled by Anti-Socialists.
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)as the country moves more and more rightward, suddenly one finds themselves far to the left.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)I was a liberal "Kennedy Democrat" for years. In the last ten years I have moved quite a ways to the left and now consider myself a structural Marxist and a Euro-style democratic socialist.
kctim
(3,575 posts)still have a moderate Dem house.
onehandle
(51,122 posts)It was 65 in 2009 and has been rising by one year, each year.
Conservatives are going away, and we will be the only ones left.
Whiskeytide
(4,653 posts)... more liberal and progressive as I've gotten older. I'm 50, and live in the south. I have always thought that wisdom and education foster liberal views. The older and smarter we get, the better able we are to see through the smoke screens and general BS we are peppered with daily.
FreeJoe
(1,039 posts)I made two fairly significant shifts. When I was in late high school and college, I shifted way to the left. I was an avowed communist for a while. I also flirted with anarchism. As I got older, I worked hard and saved a lot of money. As that happened, I saw things quite differently. The result now is that I'm very far left of social and national security issues but pretty moderate on economic issues. When I was younger, I didn't have that much to lose by overthrowing the economic system in place. Now I've got quite a lot invested in it and am much more cautious about changing it.
Magoo48
(6,719 posts)At 63, I am moving faster and faster to the left. In many ways I'm now more radical than liberal, and I'm quite content with it.
tularetom
(23,664 posts)You can't put people into a box marked "liberal" or "conservative". That is a simplification to enable corporations and the very wealthy to put a label on policies that cost them money. And then use their pals in the media to marginalize that label.
I wouldn't necessarily call you a liberal. To me there's more to it than that. To me you are someone who has gotten a lot smarter as you have aged.
Being liberal is a great thing to be. It means being open minded and generous and that is something we should all aspire to. But being "conservative" is not necessarily bad either. Literally it means to believe in conserving, and that is also a desireable quality. I don't think most of today's "conservatives" are conservative at all.
ananda
(35,064 posts)For me, it has to do with learning about the world.
The more I learn, the more liberal I become. It could not be otherwise
if I'm to remain human.
leveymg
(36,418 posts)I worked long and hard through many election cycles to get some less-than-ideal Democrats into office. I knew that they had their shortcomings ideologically and in terms of voting records. But, I would never have imagined in 2006 and 2008 that so little legislation of real progressive substance has been proposed and enacted.
Obama is a major disappointment, particularly his choices to head macroeconomic policy positions and in the areas of domestic warrantless surveillance/secrecy/whistle-blowers and his escalation of international confrontations and drum beating, particularly toward Iran and Syria.
Poll_Blind
(23,864 posts)Of the people I've talked to in real life, none of them seem to be under any illusion that Obama is a "lefty". Most of these people watch the news, and typically programs like Olbermann, Maddow, Cenk Uygur or Amy Goodman. And they read various papers but we usually discuss stuff we've seen on those shows.
None of these people are being fooled about Obama. Of course, all of them think Romney is worse. But nobody is under any false impressions out where I live. I live in Oregon.
Heck, my House Rep nailed it when he went on national tv and demanded that Obama start "acting more like a Democrat!"
That about sums it up for me. Obama is just passing through. My House Reps and Senators are the Long Game. These are the people who have been here before Obama was elected and they'll be here even in 2016 after he leaves office.
PB
Lugnut
(9,791 posts)I'm 66 and today's Democratic party is not the one I grew up with.
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)Like others here, I started out liberal and have evolved into a radical egalitarian. The more I've learned the clearer it has become that this system cannot be fixed, we must make fundamental changes if we are to have any hope of improving the lives of our citizens and for this nation to survive.
blitzburgh55
(411 posts)The more whack jobs like Palin and Bachmann that emerge, the further left I go.
wandy
(3,539 posts)That only means that I spend a bit more time thinking out my radical progressive ideas!
Love that!
felix_numinous
(5,198 posts)while my values have always been the same. But as I get older I am much more articulate about my views, and more comfortable expressing them.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)
dmosh42
(2,217 posts)middle-of-the-road. I think because we now have a Fascist system, anything to the left would be liberal. What a fucked up society!
avebury
(11,196 posts)I don't like the words 'liberal' and 'conservative.' I prefer 'progressive' and 'prudent.'
Scuba
(53,475 posts)... and there hasn't been much room to move left since.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)jwirr
(39,215 posts)more liberal.
TahitiNut
(71,611 posts)... of the U.S. "body politic."
HockeyMom
(14,337 posts)We have seen a lot in our lifetimes! I was an Independent for 30 plus years and never voted for a Republican, even the old time "moderate" ones. As the years went by, I found the Repukes getting more and more conservative, and I got more and more progressive. Why in the world was I an Independent for? Joined the Party in my mid-50s. My CHILDREN got on my case on that one. THEY were both registered Democrats since they could vote. Another major factor for me was having a lesbian daughter. How could I ever vote for anyone who thought she was a second class citizen at best, or at worst, outright evil.
Yep, becoming more and more Progressive as the years go by. Hell, if you ever saw Goldwater's later interviews, he too would be more in line with the Democrats of today.
Kath1
(4,309 posts)"How could I ever vote for anyone who thought she was a second class citizen at best, or at worst, outright evil."
That reminds me of that qoute I heard so long ago - "The personal is politcal."
Funny how the more right they go, the more left we go!
You are great parent in standing up for your daughter against discrimination.
Greybnk48
(10,717 posts)We surely have seen a lot.
abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)and realized at a very young age that I didn't agree with them about most things. I did respect my grandmother though who was a democrat and huge admirer of FDR. Left home at 16 when I went off to college and over the years my conservative family members have moved into crazy land aligning themselves with tea party and libertarian views. I don't feel like I've moved further left. The country however, has shifted to the right led by right wing talk radio and FOX news.
My father is fond of saying that as one ages they become more conservative. Haven't found that to be the case. Conservatives still make me queasy.
http://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/MjAxMi0yODA4NjlmOWIwYzFjMzg1
TheKentuckian
(26,314 posts)Conservatism used to pull against liberalism but now the struggle is between conservatism and radical regressive reactionaries.
I have grown more anti-establishment but that is a reaction to systemic failure and ever deepening corruption, which moves me to be a bit of a radical because I am seemingly ever less tolerant of propping up systems captured to work against the common good, regardless if they represent the common asserted preference or not, Popularity is a poor substitute for function.
Another factor is that time is not kind to the rot around us. Every day aspects of our failed systems become harder to avoid, pretend away, or diligently and optimistically work around. As such, my instincts toward compromise are undercut by the sheer impossibility of such an arrangement not to make matters worse and far worse over time which means both tolerance for the opposition and the acceptance of engaging in such efforts diminishes.
Seeing what the right wing policies have wrought and the blowback from their worldview has made assimilation and adoption of such more and more unacceptable.
I lean heavily toward the ground moving versus people. I think often of Justice Stevens who retired the "liberal lion" of the Supreme Court that was appointed by a Republican and was himself a Republican, not that surprises and evolution don't happen but Stevens was of the impression that he had changed very little in his bent. Maybe he had more than he thinks but even accounting for personal blind spots I would argue a clear and very substantial rightward shift in the effective political spectrum.
I don't know when next a Stevens will be nominated much less confirmed. I'm pretty damn sure it would require at least 67 Democratic Senators and a hell of an arm twisting firebrand of a President.
The sad part is the swing right is still going. Remember how fucking wrongheaded and full of shit the Republicans were just 15 years ago? Think about how "awesome" it would be to have the government shutdown assclowns and Poppy and Dole now. Hell compare Junior Bush to the fuckwits they have now.
Take a look at our biggest policy proposals. Look at the perverse consensus on civil liberties.
Maybe you are more liberal but even if you were a moderate Republican a generation ago and didn't change much at all you might find yourself a fairly progressive Democrat now, maybe even a what passes for leftist today. If you used to be a moderately liberal Democrat and stayed the same ideologically then you are fringe now, at best.
There is no left radical influence on the spectrum but the right is roughly mainstream up to Ayatollah land and open fascism with no shortage of influence from across the fences with incredible range on the reach.
ieoeja
(9,748 posts)
Jamaal510
(10,893 posts)I'm 21, and several years ago, I opposed legalization of marijuana and gay marriage. My parents told me that that marijuana was so harmful and extremely unhealthy for people such as myself who have asthma. I'm also a Christian, and I bought into the concept that homosexuality is a sin and immoral, and that everyone is created by a man and a woman. And I even contemplated voting for Proposition 8. I live in the Bay Area, and back then I was so frustrated and felt, as a non-smoker, that there was a "marijuana agenda" being pushed on me. Same thing with homosexuality. But once I started watching MSNBC and CurrentTV, I eventually woke up and quit being on the wrong side of the debate on those two issues. I realized that it won't do any harm if other people are allowed the freedom to use marijuana, and get married to whoever they want.
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)In my late teens and early 20s I considered myself a Marxist of the Trotskyist tendency. Now I'm a DUES paying Trotskyist. 
Ron Obvious
(6,261 posts)Not only did I grow older, I've been fortunate enough to become downright wealthy because of the IT bubble.
Hell, yes, I've become more liberal! I've been bloody poor, and now I'm probably in the top 3%, but I know perfectly well my hard work was only incidental to that, no matter how many people try to suck up to me!
I want to pay higher taxes to be invested in education and infrastructure. It's such a small price to pay for civilisation, and I can't understand why that is controversial.
asjr
(10,479 posts)the Party of Mean. I hate to admit it but I used to like Richard Nixon. Until of course the balloon exploded. It took Poppy Bush to divorce myself forever from the party. It came to the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas mess that finally pushed me over the edge. That was when the war on women started. To this day I detest poppy, Arlen Specter and unfortunately Joe Biden. He wanted too badly to be non-partisan. He could have stopped it. I feel that is the day the Republican agenda to be as mean as it is first began and has been growing ever since. They are now the enemy of the people and most do not realize it. I am now a proud Democrat and will be forever.
Papagoose
(428 posts)I have grown more liberal as I have gotten older and I seem to keep becoming more liberal each year.
cindyperry2010
(846 posts)all my life
Doc_Technical
(3,758 posts)50 years ago when I was becoming politically aware,
I thought Communism was a great idea.
The more I studied the situation I realized that
Communism, as espoused by Marx and Engels, had
little to do with how communist countries were
actually run.
These countries would say one thing and do another,
but I also discovered that almost all countries do this
to one degree or another.
I've watched with great distress as both major political
parties of the USA moved further to the Right, leaving me,
relatively speaking, moving further to the Left.
It has been a long time since I've heard the phrase.
"agree to disagree" and now what passes as political discussion
is little more than shouting matches and name calling.
The so called Main Stream Media rarely talks about important
subjects but instead amplifies trivial items and the latest
celebrity indiscretions.
It's no wonder that Mark Twain got more bitter to-wards the
end of his life.
MissMarple
(9,656 posts)Classical Liberals are Libertarians, for the most part. I am a Progressive Liberal, but I really don't have much of a "bleeding heart". I believe in treating people fairly, behaving honorably, and support policies that foster a thriving middle class. As we know, having a strong middle class is important for our society on many levels. Equality and fairness are important, as is learning from one's missteps.
I have also learned that we had better learn to talk to our fellow Americans in a meaningful way. Conservatives are not going anywhere, and there may be more of them than there are of us.
Bette Noir
(3,581 posts)Nowadays, I stand in about the same spot as Keith Olbermann and Bernie Sanders.
I used to be a real leftie.
LittleGirl
(8,999 posts)try this link.
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http://www.politicalcompass.org/test
I'm a libertarian Liberal
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)
movonne
(9,623 posts)nineteen50
(1,187 posts)even their god Reagan couldn't get elected today
Populist_Prole
(5,364 posts)I was a talk radio listening, Tom Clancy reading neocon idiot in my 20's and 30's ( although I always disagreed with the conservative position on trade/globalism ) and even accounting for the fact that the GOP or even the country moved rightward, I still moved toward the left. Even 3 years ago, I just was kinda turned off by the GOP. Today they have no idea how repulsed I am by them. I hate them with every fiber of my being.
The rest of my family, it's hard to say. Only my father is a hard right teaparty type. Everyone else seems to agree with me what's wrong today, but alas they're blaming the wrong people since I see they're not very well read and get informed peripherally at best; and so the loudest most available voices gets their attention.
Kath1
(4,309 posts)I'm 53 and was rather conservative/apolitical until I started taking a real "left turn" in 2003 - 2004. I was angry that Bush invaded Iraq and I got pretty vocal about it. I participated in my first anti-war demonstration that year and supported Kerry for President. I attended the March For Women's Lives at the invitation of some fellow Kerry supporters and was so moved by the event that I really started to question the Catholic faith. I decided that I supported reproductive rights and quit the church. These things didn't sit well with my ex, who was a big Bush supporter. There were other marriage problems, but my change of mind didn't help in that regard.
I've gone further left since then and I just have to laugh when I hear Obama criticized for being so "liberal."
Yes, I am proud of being a very lefty leftist LIBERAL.
hunter
(40,661 posts)Now I'm a raging leftist. I'd nationalize half of Wall Street, establish a single payer national health care plan, raise minimum wages, create a very generous welfare system, cut military spending by 90%, and tax the parasitically very, very, wealthy class out of existence. Guys like Mitt Romney would cry under my system, I wouldn't leave them enough money to support more than one or two great mansions and a few small vacation cabins, but more importantly, I wouldn't leave them enough money to buy influence in national politics.
Chakaconcarne
(2,783 posts)I will be progressive.
ColesCountyDem
(6,944 posts)... my tolerance level for right-wing bullshit has dropped to somewhere approaching zero.
Jennicut
(25,415 posts)I was 16 and watched the RNC. All I saw was nutsos who held a hatred for everyone not white, male and ultraconservative. I chose to become more of a leftist and voted for only Democrats since. Today, I would say I am pretty much the same in my 30's as I was as a teenager. Probably even more liberal economically (I was always liberal socially). My own parents were and are very conservative. I always laugh when they say I will become more conservative the older I get. Nope. Hasn't happened yet and I have two kids, a house and a mortgage now.
Kath1
(4,309 posts)"Hasn't happened yet and I have two kids, a house and a mortgage now."
You are definitely part of the 99%. Peace!
Dragonfli
(10,622 posts)I have always summed up my political position thus:
"We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens."
Because the parties have moved further and further right with each election cycle, largely due to our party adopting their positions while they continue to move even further right, to an outside observer it merely appears that I have been moving leftward at light speed since my first votes over thirty years ago.
In truth tho, I have not changed.
mojowork_n
(2,354 posts)........it's not like my preference for one kind of coffee
http://www.greenmountaincoffee.com/Coffee/FTOEthiopianY
over another (say, Folger's Columbian - yuck), or one kind of
musical style or format over another. (No DeathMetal rock, please. Gimme
Hip Hop and any kind of Riddim Beatz. A little bit of
classic rock OLDIES goes a long, long way with me, cuz that stuff's the musical
equivalent of embalming fluid.)
But we're talking current events? There are actual facts involved.
I'm concerned that the only manufacturing industries in which the U.S. still leads
the world involve out-spending the rest of the planet in making weapons, and
putting them in to the hands of troops, in 138 different countries around the world.
I'm concerned that all that Republican/Faux News "Gubmint BAD, Bidness GOOD" stuff
is one big frickin' crock. It's sold and re-sold and re-packaged and marketed 24/7 to
the weak-minded old folks among us, and some of the younger ones, too.
I'm concerned that we don't have Habeus Corpus anymore, and any little traffic
miscue can end up with you or I getting finger-raped by some cop.....
Do I have to go on?
It's not just a preference one finally settles in to, as a result of age and habit and
propinquity.
Johonny
(26,096 posts)So I think it is safe to say I'm more liberal now than then
Since Republicans in congress have gotten more and more powerful and as a party themselves they've gotten more insane I think by default I am more liberal. The shift in the political spectrum is simply amazing in the past 30 years.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)since 2001.
Kath1
(4,309 posts)I'm getting there, too! I'm a little behind you, though - 2003. Peace.
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts) Zorra
(27,670 posts)sped by that milestone at 120 mph about 2 months ago.
Karl is like a sweet old conservative uncle to me now.
Go beyond left, and then head straight into the past, to where the path ends at remember the future. Rest there as long as you need, and then continue forward through the woods until you get to alter the present.
We'll meet you in the next world; don't be late!
☮
rufus dog
(8,419 posts)But a study came out that completely repudiated the claim that liberals become conservative as they age.
And, along with most of the other posters, I have become more liberal as I age and acquire more assets. Twenty years ago I might have voted for a Republican under the right circumstances. I can make a damn solid case that I will never vote for a Republican for the rest of my life.
Irishonly
(3,344 posts)I have gotten a lot more liberal.
Stinky The Clown
(68,951 posts)I am far, far, far more liberal than I was as a young man.
XanaDUer
(12,939 posts)Come from a fairly liberal, NYC famy. Was sort of a-political when younger. Briefly "Republican" when dating one. Very quickly got over that shit when I got out in the world and started working and saw all the BS. Even my gun-loving BF at the time started to see how nuts the NRA was. Became more and more liberal,not only culturally, but economically, too. Even when "conservative" never was culturally so. Now I'm getting to be far, far Left, and I hope things are changing in our country.
SpankMe
(3,710 posts)
raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)considered a liberal by the kooks on the right today. And we'd be like "Well, we don't want him!" and they'd be like "But he's a socialist business hater and a fair and acceptable counterbalance to our position.".
Neoma
(10,039 posts)I would have to create my own manifesto, after I become a modern philosopher.
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)But I'm more of an old-school FDR liberal now, instead of a counterculture wannabe hippie.
MineralMan
(151,162 posts)The more we learn, the clearer we see things.
madokie
(51,076 posts)
jillan
(39,451 posts)I am part of the "extremist" left wing.
Funny, I really haven't changed that much.
That said - young or old, I cannot understand how anybody could be a republican.