How old are you and at what age did you take an interest in politics?

[PufPuf23]

58. Nearly 64 and first took some interest in JFK but serious about McCarthy age 15.

Kennedy was murdered when I was 10 in 5th grade.

The next year I went with a friend and his mother to a Kennedy memorial and traveling collection at the San Francisco Municipal Auditorium.

My parents weren't that political; Mom claimed to be GOP, Dad a Democrat but Dad liked Reagan and Nixon and Mom voted Democrat.

I was sent to an Episcopal owned boarding school in Marin county Fall 1966 (8th grade). The dorm masters were Episcopal seminarians and were liberal and anti-war. Haight Ashbury was thriving and I visited. I have been liberal and anti-war ever since.

I changed boarding schools in 1968 and my roommate Eric had a mother who was very active in Democratic party politics, Maya Miller of Nevada. The first time she visited Eric, she took the two of us to an anti-war rally at the Marina Green in San Francisco. I was an antiwar supporter of Eugene McCarthy and went to POTUS rallies for McCarthy, Humphrey, and Wallace - actually protester at Humphrey and Wallace and also anti-war rallies in San Francisco and Berkeley. I first identified as a Democrat in 1968 and have considered myself a Democrat ever since. I first registered and voted for McGovern in 1972. I have voted exclusively for Democratic candidates except I voted for John Anderson in the GOP primary against Reagan.

I maybe have been around more politics than some because I have a BS and Masters from Cal and was a career federal employee that resigned under Reagan. I was in Graduate Assembly student government at Cal but have never and would never consider political office. I was a Resource Conservation District Board member and served as a state officer. I have been on state appointed advisory boards and testified as a hired consultant for government agencies before several Congressional subcommittees back in the 1990s. I once was asked to be part of a panel for a political dinner where the audience was Chamber of Commerce and Rotary regarding a proposed industry-backed state initiative. Nobody asked me beforehand my opinion and I said that the proposal was poor legislation and the status quo was preferable. Some got upset with me but I got to explain my reasoning. My boss was totally cracking up when I came into the office the next morning. I am accustomed to not getting my way in politics.

In my age and with the internet, I have more time and access to political related items.