DUers, At What Age Did You Become Politically Minded and Why?

[TlalocW]

56. I remember being 8 and hoping Carter would beat Reagan

But my understanding wasn't any deeper than that's who mom and dad wanted to win. After Reagan fired the air controllers, whenever Dad came out of his bedroom for a bowl of ice cream, and Reagan was on television, he would yell, "Just look at that lying bastard!" Dad was in a steelworkers union.

In 1987 (when I was 15), I had started delivering papers in my small hometown so I took to reading everything but the sports. (I wondered for years until the internet, "Who the heck is this Larry Sabato guy, and why does the press always ask him his opinions on political developments?" ) That was the year that Oral Roberts had asked his followers to send him a ridiculous (for the time) amount of money or God would call him home, which didn't make sense to me. Oh, no... I don't want to go to this magic fairyland that I always say will be wonderful. That kind of contradiction kind of opened a crack, and I started learning more about the interplay between religion and politics, and I saw the wackjob preachers supporting republicans more... Moral Majority, Christian Right, etc. who all seemed angry and targeting people not doing them any harm and doing the opposite of what the Bible said. Not that I put any great stock in the Bible, but I recognized rank hypocrisy when I saw it, and if you can't follow the rules in the religion that you're trying to force everyone else into...

Some people claim the Bible is where they get their morality. I am half-convinced that I got mine from comic-book superheroes.
Issue: Should schools be allowed have mandatory prayers to God.
Me: Sounds like that could lead to kids who believed differently being left out or made to do things they don't want to. WWSBD (What would Superman and Batman Do?)? They would stand up for the underdogs. (Actually, so would Underdog)

On most issues, if there were a clear underdog, I would normally be for them. I've evolved (however little) from that and WWSBD? to see things more from a Constitutional viewpoints, etc.

And I guess that's what made me a bleeding heart liberal.

TlalocW