when did your political awakening happen?

[EricaGriswoldAuthor]

Were you always into politics, did your family always vote, or was there a specific event that started it?

[uppityperson]

1. Bobby Kennedy's assassination

[ProudMNDemocrat]

103. Mine too. I was 16 then.

Saw Bobby Kennedy give a speech on Monday, June 4th , 1968 at St. James Park in San Jose, California.The next night, he was gone. It was if a member of the family had died. I was glued to the television that Friday and Saturday.

[trueblue2007]

156. i graduated from high school on the NIGHT Bobby Kennedy was killed

it was horrible.

[lastlib]

112. +1.

I was 10, and already leaning D, but his assassination made me a big fan of his. In my fifth-grade mock campaign/election in '68, I was "Hubert Humphrey", losing to Nixon, so I acquired a strong dislike for Tricky Dick. Kent State and then Watergate made me a strong hater of Nixon and his perfidies, and so I was a liberal for life.

And then came Reagan.

Actually, I'm the black sheep of my family. My parents were apolitical, but always voted repug. They hated FDR and Truman, and Kennedy was "for the coloreds". My sisters went along with them and became right-wingers. My brother started out a Dem, but fell in love with guns, and his life ambition now is to kill liberals. I hardly talk to him now. Fortunately, I got an education in college that reinforced my liberalism.

[LeftInTX]

2. Reagan's election

[Sherman A1]

14. Same here

[Meadowoak]

81. Me too!

[Mme. Defarge]

47. Moi aussi!

Before that I was a former “Goldwater Girl”, as was Hillary, and a registered Republican. A “B” movie actor as POTUS was too much of a stretch.

[EricaGriswoldAuthor]

69. my mom and grandma told me

my great grandma said "he's just a movie star."

[Marie Marie]

61. Me too - when I saw Reagan during the debates.

[yellowdogintexas]

120. condescending bastard. I hated him after that nt

[stopwastingmymoney]

89. Reagan's inauguration for me

When the hostages were released, my ten year old self sat up and thought bullshit

[LiberalLovinLug]

152. Yup. How that was so orchestrated.

I was and am to this day also suspicious of sabotage of the helicopters landing in the desert in President Carter's attempt at rescue. Surely for an operation like that they'd check and triple check all kinds of logistics of desert conditions. Because if he'd been successful, Carter would have won hands down. And loyal R soldiers knew it.
His smirking "I don't recall, nudge nudge wink wink" in those Iron Contra hearings.
Then Reagans firing of traffic air controllers. His wife's "just say no" war on drugs. Ronnie's boycott of aids medication funding. The ongoing contra war against Nicaragua's democratically elected government, after they finally shed a decades long dictatorship.

[Dustlawyer]

111. Me too!

[shenmue]

3. The Iran-Contra hearings

[TreasonousBastard]

4. Nixon.

[benld74]

39. Yup. 17 I was.

[lapfog_1]

87. Nixon's the One

who ensured that I would never vote Republican.

[HAB911]

108. +++++++++++

[dameatball]

5. 70 - 71. Just because I got out of my small town bubble and bothered to see other viewpoints.

[Turin_C3PO]

6. I went to NM's Boys State

when I was a junior. I was surrounded by self-identified Republican students. I realized that I was against everything they stood for. When I got home, I researched the Democratic Party and the rest is history.

[pnwest]

7. Sep 11.

[Polybius]

98. Most people flocked to Bush on 9/11

I did for about two weeks, but quickly saw through the lies. His incompetence lead to 9/11. The warnings were there and he ignored them.

[Ahpook]

8. 2000

My wife and I went to bed knowing Gore was voted in. Somehow, overnight the shenanigans started.

I am from DC originally so politics is always a topic. That selection was a complete fuck you, we don't care.

[Upthevibe]

83. Me too... even though my parents were quite liberal

civil rights advocates who were against the war in Vietnam and I was around the ideology growing up, it was the 2000 sElection that really woke me up and shook me to my core. Not long after that I discovered DU and there's been no turning back..

[Luciferous]

9. The Iraq war is what did it for me. However my grandma was a poll worker every election

and my dad also works the polls so there has always been an interest in politics in my family.

[tnlurker]

10. Nixon's re-election

I knew he was bad even then.

I was 11 years old. Been following politics since then.

[leftieNanner]

11. I don't remember exactly when I began to notice politics

But I do recall how much I hated Reagan as California Governor and all the damage he did there. Iran Contra was bad. But I vividly remember the thrill when Bill Clinton was elected and I realized that the President of the United States was from my generation. I was hopeful. When Dubyah was elected, I kicked into high gear. For ten years (until we moved to Oregon) I worked as a Poll Inspector and got involved in campaigns. Here in Oregon, there are no polling places because it's 100% vote by mail. So I have become more active in local politics and especially in working towards getting our Republican Rep Greg Walden out. It's a tough road though because most of his district is deep red Eastern Oregon.

BTW, my parents were old school Republicans (they would have hated Trump), so we didn't discuss politics much after I was "woke".

[doc03]

12. After I voted for that lying pos Reagan. nt

[dewsgirl]

13. The Gulf War, I was 13 and fell in love with politics. And

my family always voted and were fairly political. Very democratic. My dad loathed Fox news.

[lordsummerisle]

15. JFK assassination

I was just a kid but I started paying attention after this.

[Ahpook]

19. I can only imagine

That had to strike fear or outrage.

[liberal N proud]

28. My earliest recollection of TV was Kennedy funeral

[rainy]

16. I paid attention but not too much until 911

And when the march to an illegal war started I got very involved. I joined anti war groups and later was part of a local Occupy group!

[MaryMagdaline]

17. Always into politics

The assassination of JFK was like a death in our family. It was the first sense of loss I ever felt at age 4. The sound of Kennedy’s voice would entice me to the TV ever after (we did not have a TV in 1963). I was brought up to believe that politics was a sacred responsibility. Bobby’s voice was the next enticement I felt. I had post cards of both Kennedys in my room. Bobby’s said “some men see things as the are and say why ... I dream of things that never were and say why not.”

[zeusdogmom]

18. Kennedy assasination began the process

The following summer I met Hubert Humphrey while in DC on a 4-H trip. Totally mind changing for this rural southern MN girl. Not only just meeting HHH but the whole trip.

My parents as well as everyone else in the family were (and still are) active republicans - my poor dad wondered until the day he died where he went wrong with me. 😄. We had some good conversations thru the years. I would love to be able to talk with him now regarding the mess tRump has created. My guess is he might be disgusted.

[JohnnyLib2]

20. I'm old--JFK's campaign grabbed my attention.

Parents were active in Democratic politics.

[alterfurz]

115. me, too

When JFK's campaign piqued my budding interest in politics, my Depression-Era grandpa explained to me all he thought I, as a future member of the working class, needed to know about the subject, roughly summarized as: "All politicians will lie to you and steal from you, but the dime's worth of difference is that the Republican wants your every dollar, while the Democrat will sometimes leave you the dime."

[Ms. Toad]

21. I was born awake, as far as I know, and never went to sleep.

I was conceived while my parents were waiting to be sent to the middle East (alternative service for my father), but the site he was to be sent to was bombed, so they were sent to Mexico, which returned them to the US when the powers that be in Mexico returned them home to the US, where my father spent the first two years of my life (the remainder of his CO service) as a draft counselor for a peace and social justice group.

I went to my first politial march when I was 7 (at least if there were earlier ones my parents haven't informed me). I was part of the only non-white family in our community (by adoption of my siblings) starting at age 4, and witnessed blatant discrimination against a black girl who lived with us for a couple of weeks when I was 10 or 11 - when we took her to the swimming pool.

My first independent political action (civil disobedience as a reaction to discrimination) was at age 11.

Haven't stopped since then.

[SterlingPound]

22. after the evangicals didn't show up for bob dole back in th 90's

[JonLP24]

23. When Bush was lying his way into Iraq

[NewDayOranges]

24. During the 92 Presidential Campaign...

I heard Clinton give a stump speech on CSPAN in which he stated that it's cheaper for society as a whole yo send a person to college for 4 years than to send them to prison for the same amount of time...

I became a Democrat that day...

The 2000 Election debacle made me a liberal... And made me see the Republican party as the enemy!

[liberal N proud]

25. My mother worked campaigns, even managed a state senators campaign

My parents even had a fundraiser in our back yard for Hubert Humphrey.

My mother also worked polls when she was older.

[Skittles]

26. Anita Bryant

I remember thinking, gay people don't bother me but SHE sure does......I detested her, and did not want to support any party that included homophobia as SOP

https://medium.com/th-ink/anita-bryant-we-hardly-knew-ye-5081b64c1b56

[bobbieinok]

71. She went to my HS and played Nelly when we put on South Pacific in 55-56

My brother knew a boy who was in a couple of classes with her.

She married her 1st husband in a chapel in the First (SoBaptist) Church here. Note--her husband after a few yrs abused her and preacher and congregation said she had to stay married. Divorce was against biblical teachings!

She was OK winner in Miss America pageant in 57 and was 1st or 2nd runner-up. I watched the contest as I got my clothes ready to go off to my 1st yr of college.

She spent some yrs traveling with Bob Hope visiting US troops around the world.

And yes, her anti LGBT stand was bad.

[llmart]

27. Somewhere around my senior year in high school.

My American Government teacher was a bit outside the mainstream of the little rural, all-white town I grew up in, and he taught the class about propaganda and how our own government wasn't on the up and up about the Viet Nam war. There were a couple of guys in my class who didn't take school or grades very seriously - they were the popular jocks - and one day he got angry at them for not paying attention and he said, "You're the kind of guys that are going to get dragged over to fight this awful war because you'll never have good enough grades to get into college." I subscribed to US News and World Report when I was 16 - used the money I'd made that summer to pay for the subscription. Other girls were getting "Teen" magazine or whatever, but I wanted to go to college and I wanted to better understand politics. Reading that magazine taught me all I needed to know about Nixon, and his dirty tricks cemented in my mind the fact that I felt more comfortable in the Democratic Party. I've never voted for a Republican in my life and I'm proud of that!

My parents talked a lot about politics and there were always several newspapers in our house, but they weren't voters. Maybe they were before I became old enough to be aware, but I don't remember them ever talking about voting. They were both extremely devastated when JFK was assassinated. Their beliefs were definitely along the lines of the Democrats though. My father was a blue collar union guy.

[Hugin]

29. I was born this way.

It's congenital.

[yellowdogintexas]

121. same here (see my post below) nt

[Golden Raisin]

30. Jack, Bobby and Vietnam were probably 3 of the

major signposts along my political road. Raised by parents who instilled in me almost from infancy that voting was virtually a holy rite, privilege and duty. I'm old now and have voted in every election, major and minor, since I was eligible. My earliest (childhood) political memories are of the 1956 Eisenhower/Stevenson election and also of Eleanor Roosevelt.

[yellowdogintexas]

122. we must be about the same age.

I was born in 1948 and was 8 years old in 1956

[House of Roberts]

31. Summer 1968, watching the conventions with an older friend.

I was 11, and my friend was 14. He explained everything that was happening so that I understood it.

Then I asked my dad what was the difference between Democrats and Republicans. He said Republicans only care about the rich, and the Democrats care about everybody else. I've never found that to be false, so here I am.

[not_the_one]

144. me too

I had just turned 17.

I was aware of the assassinations, but it was like another, distant reality. Not quite real... I was in the south...

Watching the democratic convention put it IN MY FACE. I had a hard time sitting still (like when watching a gymnast, I have to make a conscious effort to sit still).

I was already a Beatlemaniac, and beginning to identify with hippies.

It went downhill from there.

[sakabatou]

32. Around 2004

[kimbutgar]

33. 2000 when the supreme court appointed bush

Before then I didn’t watch cable news or pay attention to politics. I thought the Clinton impeachment was bs and already knew about “dirty, stinkin, lousy repukes” from my Dad saying it when I was a kid everytime a repuke spoke on tv.

[The_jackalope]

34. Born to it.

My grandparents were founding members of the Canadian socialist party the CCF. My mother was a candidate and organizer for their successors the NDP. So for me, left wing politics came with my mother's milk.

[livetohike]

35. My Dad was a committeeman for our ward. He would pay me

a quarter to pass pamphlets to all Democrats on the street list. I was 8 years old in 1960 and remember passing pamphlets for JFK. On election night, my parents allowed me to stay up and watch the results come in. I was hooked on politics from then til now .

[BlueTsunami2018]

36. My parents always voted and so I did too.

But I didn’t realize the personal importance of it until 1994. That’s when I woke up and became a hardcore Democrat. I’m sad to say my first two Presidential votes were for Poppy Bush. I just didn’t know any better, I assumed my father knew what he was talking about. I’m a union member and had been for five years before I looked at party policies and understood that I was voting against myself. I’ve never looked back and have become more progressive as I’ve gotten older.

[elleng]

37. from Eisenhower's 1956 election (I recall family sad about losing Stevenson,)

and watching Army/mccarthy hearings before/after school.

Details followed, of course.

[The Figment]

38. In the fifth grade...

1968..
Nixon I called him "The Creepy Man"
The 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention
Martin Luther King's Assassination
Bobby Kennedys Assasination
Hippies
This got me to start thinking, then in 1977 I entered the University of Colorado at Boulder and discovered that the majority of the the student body was "Yuppie Larvae" this cemented my "Aggressive Progressive" politics forever.

I dropped out of CU in 1979 and never looked back.

[Raftergirl]

43. I went to CU, too!

74-78.

[The Figment]

51. Loved Boulder

Back in the 70's Boulder was a utopia! Nowadays not so much...the house that I rented for $265 a month now rents for $4400 a month, the hippie health food store that was on the corner of 15th and Pearl is now a multi story building, and the Aristocrat Restaurant is long gone!

[Raftergirl]

57. Things change

I haven’t been back since about 1980.

My best friend waitressed at the Aristocrat. I spent many hungover Sunday mornings there.

After freshman year I lived on the hill and then up in Nederland.

Is The Blue Note still there?

[The Figment]

58. No

Boulder has become the "Aspen/Vail" of the Front Range, VERY Expensive, Extremely Upscale, Very
"N.I.M.B.Y" In fact I find Boulder to be utterly snobbish, and totally "Californicated"

I miss places like Mothers Cafe, Penny Lane Coffeehouse and the 'Crat!

Martin Acres homes sell for upwards of $700,000 plus nowadays...the Average Boulder County Home is $1,500,000 today.

[Raftergirl]

66. Not surprising

It’s beautiful there and that view comes with a price.

My kid loves Denver and would move there (his company recently opened an office there) in a heartbeat, but it’s better career wise for him to be in the corporate headquarters in Boston.

I’d still like to go back and visit.

[bobbieinok]

73. Friend went to teach German there in 60s right out of grad school.

[Raftergirl]

40. Early 1960's

Last edited Mon Oct 14, 2019, 10:52 PM - Edit history (1)

My parents were both political and my mom’s cousin was in JFK’s administration. He told my parents that the admin knew Vietnam was a lost cause. This was a huge topic of conversation around our dinner table with both my parents being early on the anti-war bandwagon. I got more active in late 60’s (I was around 12ish) after MLK and RFK’s assassinations and Kent State. Went to lots of protests. Then in high school it was all about Watergate and getting rid of Nixon. My friends and I would go home from school and watch the hearings every day.

Everyone in my family always votes in both primary and general elections and none of us has ever voted for a Republican or third party. My now 90 yr old mom volunteered for both Obama and Hilliary’s campaigns. She even had volunteers from other states stay at her home (in Florida) to help GOTV.

[WVGal1963]

41. Greenpeace

My family always voted. As an itty bitty girl, I got REALLY involved with the “Save The Whales” movement. Clubbing of baby seals while their mamas, nearby, cried and cried and cried? OH NO!!!For their fur????

Thus, my support of Greenpeace.

That’s the first thing that turned me on to a political awakening as a kid. And I had full support from my Mom and from my Dad.

My family talked issues all the time - - hard core West Virginia Democrats. Yep. Hard core progressive, educated, active West Virginia Democrats. It’s my legacy.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

143. My grandma was a hardcore liberal .my family

Too. I have a picture of my grandma in her yard holding a Clinton sign,she lived in Virgina right by the border of North Carolina. She was the shit and I learned alot about politics with her.

I got awakened by her ,Abby Hoffman and the Dead Kennedy's.
Think I became aware early like 6 years old because we were a left-wing family for the most part.

[CanonRay]

42. May 4, 1970

Kent State for you youngsters, although I wax always interested in politics. As an 8 year old stayed up to watch the Dem convention in 1960.

[Crunchy Frog]

44. I always voted, but my real awakening was Shock and Awe.

[2naSalit]

45. Really early.

Due to family political activity and proximity to notable politicians.

[Bleacher Creature]

46. 1994, with the Contract ON America. NT

[dixiegrrrrl]

48. summer of '68..

ZERO political activity or even much interest in my parents, beyond yelling at the tv when I grew up.

My 2nd kid was born in Aug. of that year, I was glued to the tv all summer, had watched the Democratic Convention/police brutality.
REALLY got involved in 1970, Nixon lying on the tv about Viet Nam. the draft still in effect and me at home with my 2 toddler sons.
spent the next 10 years in active politics.

god knows what some of us could have accomplished if we had computers.

[Permanut]

49. Voted for Nixon in my first election..

Been trying to make amends ever since.

[TwilightZone]

50. Carter-Ford, at the ripe old age of 7.

Been interested in politics ever since. My parents were both pretty liberal (in a red state, no less) and interested/involved in politics, current events, issues, etc.

[IADEMO2004]

52. Kent State 1970 couple weeks before my high school graduation.

[Ferryboat]

145. Kent state

I was in 8th grade.
I remember my dad saying all student protesters should be shot.

I realized at that moment we both saw things a little different.

[FM123]

53. My first real political memory was the election of 1972 - I was just blown away by Shirley Chisholm!

(I was in 5th grade)

[scrabblequeen40]

54. 1992 - Clinton vs. Bush

Buchanan's racist keynote at the Republican convention "woke" me. I was a Bible-thumping Republican up until then. I stood in the voting booth for 20 minutes contemplating whether I could pull the trigger for Slick Willie or just leave that race blank. In the end, I did and I have never regretted it. Haven't voted for a Republican since.

[hatrack]

55. Watergate, the fall of South Vietnam and Jonestown . . .

And people wonder why I lean pessimistic.

[Baked Potato]

56. Jimmy Carter, first vote

Reagan screwed me out of my first *good* job via Prop 13. First time voted was for President Carter.

[Volaris]

59. When the Smarra Mosque bomb went off...

And I KNEW the BushCo line on iraq was bullshit.

Previous to that, i remember being 6 years old and watching the presidential debates sitting on my grandparents living room floor.
Grandma was a nurse in Britain in ww2..and was a roosevelt liberal.
Grandpa was an air force POW and voted for Eisenhower.

This was from the red river valley in North Dakota, where BOTH of them understood that before it was called 'liberalism', it was called a Farmers Co-OP.

The last time I was at grandma's (grandpa had passed by this point) Obama was President and grandma, at 87 was watching the nightly news:

Which meant Racheal Fucking Maddow.

Grandma didnt raise no fool.

(On Edit I think that debate might have been Reagan McGovern?
Regan won, and that might have been 80?
Not sure tbh...we moved south in 84, and it was before that..

[WhiteTara]

60. April 30, 1970.

Kent State student massacre

[WheelWalker]

62. Probably when I smoked my first joint. Fall, '68

[Initech]

63. 2000 election showed me what ruthless, power hungry mad men conservatives were.

Then 9/11 happened and well...

[smirkymonkey]

64. Little by little.

My neighbors and best friends had a father who was a Unitarian Minister and many friends who were socially liberal and very active. I went to Unitarian Sunday School and often attended services (because I asked my parents if I could. I liked it). My family was loosely Catholic on one side and Episcopalian on the other, but not rigidly religious, so they let me go.

They were the people who gave me my first awareness of social injustice and a political consciousness. I immediately gravitated toward their leftist sensibilities to my parent's dismay, but as a child, I was hardly a political threat, so they didn't really take it seriously.

It wasn't until college when I took a course in government from a socialist professor that I really started to wake up and wanted to register as a socialist. My republican father persuaded me against it, but allowed me to register as a Democrat. I have been one ever since. I have always had strong Democratic views, but the fire was not really lit under me until the George W. Bush years, when I felt like I could not really take it anymore. I could not keep my mouth shut any longer.

That was when I found DU and have only become more fiercely liberal since then. What we are going through now is the biggest nightmare politically that I have ever experienced and I am determined to see this bastard impeached, imprisoned and to go down in history as the worst person to have ever have been inflicted upon the American public.

I never thought it could ever get this bad, but I really hope this is the end of the Trump nightmare. Enough is enough. We can't survive much more of this.

[RobinA]

65. I Was Thinking

Kent State but then I remembered George Wallace. I was petrified that Wallace was going to win in 1968. I didn’t care who won, just so it wasn’t Wallace. I was 10 at that time.

[bobbieinok]

67. Mostly JFK election. Lots of dem college friends. And I WAS'NT 21 and COULDN'T VOTE--

Remember radio coverage of anti Truman sentiment before 48 election. Think now it was because he desegregated the military.

Dad always had the political conventions running constantly on the radio. Remember being surprised Truman won in 48 because of boos etc during convention.

Radio then TV coverage of democratic conventions---always the introduction of and cheering for Eleanor Roosevelt.

Dad took me and 2 younger brothers to hear Nixon when he came to town in 52 election.

Kept scrapbook for 52 election for extra credit in jr high social studies class

[EricaGriswoldAuthor]

68. here was mine

The 2000 presidential election. I was 14. My mom was 41. Yup she voted for the first time at 44 years old. When Gore lost the electoral college. It was all just downhill after that.

I also graduated from college in 2009 during the recession.

Second Great awakening happened after Trump's win and I wanted to find out how to take him out. That's when I found out what midterms were at 30 years old.

[NCLefty]

70. Realizing the people who hated me for being gay had a name: Republicans.

And I've never voted for one in my life.

[Bonx]

72. When I maxxed @80K in college loan debt and some a**hole tried to blame it on me

instead if our failed system of post k12 education.

[question everything]

74. Bork nomination. At least, my first letters to my senators to vote NO.

[oswaldactedalone]

75. Taking political science

Classes beginning in ‘76 got me to looking for more details on what actually happened during Watergate. The first books started coming out and I read many of them. Among other lessons I learned was the inherent evilness of Republican politicians and their party.

Have never voted for a Republican since, even when they run unopposed.

[TDale313]

76. My family always voted (and voted Dem)

I would say I first really got interested in politics in college (early 90’s) and got really politically involved in the early 2000’s. I think with what’s happening, it’s easy to forget just how bad the Bush W years were.

[Sneederbunk]

77. Working on RFK's Nebraska Primary.

[ooky]

78. I finally became a hardcore democrat over health care policy

not long after my 6 yo son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and I was informed we couldn't buy insurance because of "pre-existing conditions". I was like, "who made that dumbass rule (?)", and I started turning over rocks to find out why. By then I was getting very pissed off at Republicans, who didn't seem to do anything to help anybody.

Before that I ran from politics, religion, and anything else controversial and hard to discern what was true or not, coming from a family with a Republican voting mother and a Democrat voting father who didn't get along. She listened to Limbaugh all the time, and listening to her talking about that I just knew politics was all bullshit. I didn't believe in anything, didn't vote for a long time, and was content to just stay stoned. After a four year military stint, went back to college, started reading again, graduated, went to work, had kids, and got interested enough to finally vote in my first presidential election - for Bill Clinton - unimpressed by 12 straight years of Republican bullshit. That was also about the same time I found out my kid had diabetes, and I've been all Blue since, never turning back.

[applegrove]

79. My dad was a political junkie. He came from a political family. Stories

Last edited Thu Oct 31, 2019, 02:53 AM - Edit history (4)

i heard in my childhood were things like my dad punching the prime minister in the stomach when he was under 9 because the PM, who usually sat in the same pew but at a later service, came to church in Ottawa earlier than normal. His grandmother, whose husband's Liberal Party political career was finished by PM WLMK, who hated WLMK's shoes she always had to polish when he stayed at their home in Halifax (liking her hospitality more than a hotel), said when they got home from church "don't lay a hand on that boy - he's shown more sense than anyone else has in a long time". Of course she was going over for dinner with her husband to the PM's during this period (late 1930s). And WLMK did make her husband a federal judge for legislative law (he was a big fan of income taxes when he was an MP). But the shoes she had to polish.... so simple for him to just say to himself "i am not at a hotel, i will go this day without polished shoes". But no. He put his shoes outside his bedroom door every night he stayed at her house (in about 1919). I don't think he was PM at the time she had a house in Halifax but it stuck in her craw for 2 decades because it was not necessary. Good for her.

Those generations talked politics every night at dinner. So did dad with us kids. Spent Canadian Thanksgiving with he and my brother tonight. He doesn't know who is running locally so we are going to school him next Sunday and hopefully he will remember by the next morning when they vote in his nursing home. He is 89. He's suddenly just getting bits of news stories. It is great to have a big passion in life and his has been following politics.

[LeftInTX]

93. That's quite a story!!!

[GaYellowDawg]

80. 1976. I was 9.

Carter’s election. My family actually went through Plains on vacation and I got to meet Lillian Carter. I learned a lot about Watergate from reading Art Buchwald books and thought Ford was a criminal for pardoning Nixon. I was a huge Carter supporter during his whole administration and was heartbroken when people fell for Reagan’s bullshit.

[nolabear]

82. '68. Martin, Bobby, the whole dreadful year.

I was thirteen and living in Mississippi. I was a news junkie even then. It was the world. I love my people, I do. But I’ve never understood them. Seeing those good people destroyed for trying to make people’s’ lives better just made me determined I’d be like them, not those who hurt them.

[ecstatic]

84. Randomly happened upon Fox News in my college dorm

At that time, I didn't really have a label or ideology, I just knew I disagreed with EVERYTHING that was being said on that channel. Soon I was showering Bill O'Reilly with angry emails, at least one of which was read live on air.

Anyway, that's how it started. That's how I learned I was a scary "liberal." The funny thing is, my parents never really talked politics or watched political shows when I was growing up (maybe they didn't exist??). Now? That's all they watch, and yes, we're all on the same page.

[hedda_foil]

85. Second grade. 1952. I remember reading about the candidates in Parade magazine.

I recall looking at pix of Taft and four or five other Republicans, including Ike and thinking that they all sounded old and dull. Watched parts of both conventions and the Dems had a lot more fun!

[yellowdogintexas]

124. Can you imagine what Ike would be saying about current events?

I suspect it could not be broadcast anywhere besides HBO. The military invented streams of unbeatable invective!

Where are the Republicans like Ike, Mayor Lindsay, Governor Rockefeller, Howard Baker, the Senator from Illinois with the really gravelly voice whose name escapes me at the moment, (his daughter married Howard Baker) Senator Jacob Javitts, and the others of the 60s

[Iterate]

159. Everett Dirksen

Dirksen broke the filibuster of the civil rights act in '64, allowing the compromises and final passage. Yes, a Republican did that.

I never trusted him though because you never quite knew which Everett you would get.

[SlogginThroughIt]

86. 2000 for me is when I really woke up.

[Binkie The Clown]

88. Our last honorable Republican president...

Dwight D. Eisenhower.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone."

Listening to that speech back in 1953 awoke the political consciousness in me. I was 8 years old.

[herding cats]

90. I was a child under Reagan.

Watching the Iran Iran Contra hearings awakened my mind to possibilities I might have never considered. I was too young to vote, but it helped shape me and educated me.

Some might say it jaded me at an early age.

[ThoughtCriminal]

91. 1963 - When George Wallace closed my school

in an attempt to prevent it from being de-segregated.

[Cartoonist]

92. The Vietnam war

They ended the conflict when I turned 17, but I was sweating the draft up till then. I voted for McGoverm and was sorely disappointed at his showing. I was appalled at my fellow Americans. Nixon?

[Dirty Socialist]

94. 1982. Ohio State Senate

I was in a high school government class and went on a field trip to Columbus. I attended a State senate general assembly. A Democratic state senator gave an impassioned speech about opposing budget cuts to a mentally handicap support fund. ALL of the Republican senators chose NOT to pay any attention to the speech, going about dong their business and gabbing to their colleagues. That demonstration of rudeness motivated me to get a little involved. Looking back, I think I should have gone into politics as a career. That was where my passion was, and perhaps I missed my calling.

[onetexan]

95. 5th grade, history teacher ms. Miller, then social studies ms. Brown during Iran hostage crisis

These were 2 passionate teachers who drilled into my head that we as citizens of this nation not only need to be cognizant of political events during our lifetime but actively participate and exercise our rights with our votes. Teachers play an important role in shaping and influencing our understanding and view of the world. We need more good teachers.

[Hekate]

96. Parents always voted but weren't "political." I got into it my first year of college & by the time

... I turned 20 was working for Senator Eugene McCarthy, as he was the first to come out against the Vietnam War. Bobby Kennedy spoke out after that, and some of my friends were all on board with him. This was in California. When Bobby was assassinated I knew it was all over for us, too.

My energy has waxed and waned, but my interest has always been there.

ETA: I started writing letters to the editor of the local paper while still in high school, and they got printed too, so that counts.

[Polybius]

97. 1996 was my first election and I voted for Dole

In 2000 I backed Gore, but didn't hate Bush. After 9/11 and his awful wars, I switched sides for good.

[VOX]

99. JFK's winning the nomination at the 1960 Democratic Convention in Los Angeles...

My family lived in West L.A., so the whole town was abuzz with excitement. Even though my folks were both Republicans, they were interested in all politics and appreciated the process of democracy at work.

Having consciously known of only one previous president (Eisenhower), I thought all presidents were “old men.” The freshly minted Democratic presidential candidate was younger than my parents.

I was nine years old, and this man from Boston appeared like a sun god.

[handmade34]

100. high school

history teacher woke me... parents no help... and then 26th Amendment when I was 18!! The environment was always the driver for me and then toss in the Vietnam War Protests and boom... game on

[vlyons]

101. 1967 and anti-Vietnam war

nt

[brucefan]

102. Bush v Gore

[malaise]

104. Between age three and four

My parents decorated the house in red white and blue for the coronation of Elizabeth. Dad's oldest sister came to spend a few days with us, looked at the house and laughed them to scorn while telling them they were celebrating their former slave owners. I was freaking hooked. It remains my oldest childhood memory.

[wnylib]

105. 1960 Kennedy vs Nixon

i was 10 years old. i see there are other Boomers here. Sometimes seems like our generation was born to be political.

My parents were Dems and talked political issues at home so i was vaguely aware before the 1960 election. 2 memories from very early childhood. First was cars going down our street with people yelling slogans through a bullhorn. Asked mom what it was about and she explained elections to me.

Second earliest political memory was the tail end of the televised McCarthy hearings. Mom.was dusting in the living room with TV on. I saw men in suits shouting & they sounded scarey although I had no clue. Mild-mannered mom slammed a knick knack on a table and told the men on TV, "Witch hunt! GD witch hunt!" It was many years before I knew what that was about.

Cuban Missle Crisis, 1962 - I was 13. My brother was career Navy. His destroyer fleet was part of the blockade. Whole family glued to TV and radio until it was over.

Nov 22, 1963. I was 14. Stayed home sick from school, was lying on couch watching Groucho Marx when first bulletins came on about shots fired in Dallas. Watched everything all weekend and funeral on Monday.

Followed party conventions on TV every 4 years. Watched civil rights protests, dogs, hoses,etc on TV. A friend was Kent State student in 1970 but went home when things looked bad so she wasn't there for shootings.

Cheered when Nixon resigned. Lost interest during Reagan years. Couldn't stand listening to him. A lot going on in my personal life then, too. Perked up again when Clinton won. Protested in DC against Iraq War before it started. Couldn't stand Bush. Little did I know there would.or could be someone worse years later.

Liked Obama first time I saw & heard him on TV. Did phone banking and house calls for him in 2008 and 2012.

Cried bitterly in Nov 2016. I had met and talked to Hillary in her first NY Senator race.

[yellowdogintexas]

125. I forgot about the McCarthy hearings!!

I came home from school and my mom had them on. I wanted to watch cartoons and asked if I could change the channel. She said "NO!" and then added that it was on all 3 channels anyway. Then when I asked her why she sat down and explained to an 8 year old all about the McCarthy witch hunts, why there were hearings, how much she hated Nixon and why. Her original reason for hating him was his Senate campaign when he absolutely destroyed Helen Douglas with the Commie Pinko garbage.

She hated Ike at the time because he picked Nixon as his VPOTUS. She lived through The War and knew what he really was, and admired him up to 1952 but this was just anathema to her.

I really miss talking politics with her. OMG we would be having what for us was fun discussing all of this. She was the first person who ever said to me that what happened in Germany in the 1930s could happen here if we let it happen. And here we are

[wnylib]

157. McCarthy hearings

I was much too young for an explanation of the hearings. Wasn't in kindergsrten yet. The event stayed in my memory bc mom was usually so mild mannered but was very outraged that day.

Re: Germany, Nazis, WW2

My mother's parents came to US from German Empire as young children b4 1st world war. Kept in touch with relatives in Germany b4 & between wars. Lost touch after WW2 bc relatives were in communist East. Wrote to us to stop contacting them. Too dangerous to have American contacts during Cold War. My grandmother's sister lived with us in my childhood. She & mom closely watched Eichmann trial on TV. Wouldn't let me watch. Said I was too young. I remember my great aunt crying over what het homeland had become under Nazis.

We had neighbors who were Italian immigrants after the war. They had been partisans. Like my family they had very strong anti fascist views.

So I was exposed to politics at early age.

[pansypoo53219]

106. i was always reading the paper. we had a good lefty editorial cartoonist. then i discovered c-span

around 17. but born lefty.

[Sedona]

107. Baby I was born this way

[phylny]

109. I always voted, and was alway aware (Watergate, Iran-Contra), but

I became politically active when W* was "elected."

[Vinca]

110. I've always been aware of what was going on, even at a young age.

I think the first time I really got fired up was when I was about 19. I remember sitting in the basement tv room of a nurse's residence at a psychiatric hospital (fitting) watching a black and white television by myself. I was watching the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, specifically the speech given by Sen. Abraham Ribicoff. That was the moment.

[bluedigger]

113. I was at Boy Scout camp in August of '74.

When I came home I took down the picture of Nixon on my bedroom wall and became a Democrat.

[JesterCS]

114. Weeks after Sept 11th, 2001

I became so transfixed with current events that it basically took over my free time.

[treestar]

116. 1968

Dad campaigned for a county official. We rode in the car - he had a bullhorn and talked to the neighborhood about voting for this person. Kids surrounded the car yelling "Nixon!" Dad and his family were disappointed Nixon won that year. I don't even remember if they guy he campaigned for won. I started being aware. By 1972, I was a Democrat wearing a McGovern button. A lot of our class was into it, wearing Nixon or McGovern buttons and teachers let us debate it if their subject was at all relevant. Everyone was talking about the election.

[ConstanceCee]

117. Clear Memory

The election of JFK in 1960. I was 14 years old. My parents had always voted (I believe Republican, but back then this was different). In 1960, my mother watched the televised debate between Kennedy and Nixon, and voted for Kennedy, cancelling out my father's vote. This made a huge impression on me; I realized that it was possible to get informed and to make an independent decision. Then came civil rights and Vietnam, and I was ready. Thanks, Mom.

[LakeArenal]

118. Politics and atheism came together for me at about 12

My parents were very racist. I couldn’t understand why. Never.
My communities were always white milk.
I just couldn’t understand why MLK was a bad guy. George Wallace seemed so hateful to be the good guy.
Rock and roll, Motown... why was that bad?
I was confused.

Meanwhile every summer til 12 I was sent to different Christian Bible schools. I was Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Unitarian, was allowed to go to Catholic mass with friends and Easter, but the last was Reformed Lutheran and they we’re the last nail in my Christian fail. I could not understand the women obey men shit. The fact that there had to be a big ceremony to re-born me when I’d been in churches forever. The superiority they had over everyone. (Including themselves). Everyone talked or more like “reported” stuff about others and then it would be discussed amongst the group as to “what (punitive) measures to take”.
One women was blamed for divorcing her cheating husband so much she left.

I realized Kennedy’s were right. The idea he would be President for everyone while not shoving Catholicism down the nation’s throat. That all people are equal. There is right and wrong without resorting to ten rules that beyond no killing everyone seemed to be breaking.

The fact that to me the Kennedys seemed golden. How could they be wrong? Juxtaposed with Nixon and J Edgar Hoover and black folks being lynched or worse.

Hooked. My spouse wishes not so much.

[yellowdogintexas]

119. born into it. Fully indoctrinated by age 8

Watched conventions all night with my mom. Learned all about Nixon and why she hated him with a purple passion.

I'd have to say the "awakening" was 1960 and JFK.

I cast my first vote at age 18 1/2 (because I lived in KY and I could) in spring 1968 for a Democrat running for Circuit Court Judge; he was a family friend and performed our wedding.

There is a family joke that because my mom missed voting for Harry Truman in 1948 (she was still in the hospital after my birth), she never forgave me and therefore I had to be her Democratic child.

Also I am a 3rd generation Yellow Dog with a grandfather who worked behind the scenes, a great uncle who was County Chair and State Chair in KY, his granddaughter who was also County Chair and went on to represent the district where we all grew up in the KY House.

[ChazInAz]

123. The summer of 1968

Martin Luther King.
Bobby Kennedy.
Vietnam.
Getting the shit beaten out of me at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, when I decided to DO something about the above. (I still had memories of Budapest, 1956.)

[TEB]

126. Regan cheese growing up Appalachian

[Mersky]

127. Ann Richards had an impact on me in middle school

My grandfather thought the world of her, and would, on occasion, invoke her witticisms - was so tickled by this combining of two heroes. Was about this time that I started looking forward to voting.

These were the same years I’d learned of the Etruscans and their egalitarian ways, read thru my tears the first hand accounts of slaves, and became utterly horrified by the Spanish Inquisition. I am so deeply grateful for these and other history lessons.

When one of my best friends pulled me into a room and flipped thru a pile of graphic images and screeds about abortion, I knew somehow I was being sold a half truth, and I felt overwhelming disappointment that she’d gotten that material from church friends. I felt dazed, and frankly, sort of violated. About a month later, I declared I was done with ‘institutionalized religion’ as I put it back then. This was the big turn to my self aware, free-thinking ways.

Flash forward to college in the late nineties. I was obsessed with headline news, and generally, cable news as I avoided going to campus whilst dealing with unidentified ptsd, and crap like agoraphobia. It was while hanging out with a good friend on the UT debate team that I learned how to think more critically about news and sources. It gave me some grounding in a world that seemed so likely to fail. I was also clear-eyed about Bush, and snatched friends back home from just voting based on their parents’ politics.

All in all, I’ve been a proud political news junkie my entire adult life. And as practiced as I think I am at holding a bead on the news, I’m just hanging-on for dear life during the awful tRump years.

[mainstreetonce]

128. Election 2000

Outraged!

[muntrv]

129. 1980 election when I was 10. At first I thought Reagan

would be good, but then I saw implementation of Reaganomics and its negative effects. Plus Iran-Contra ensued me being a Democrat for life.

[Act_of_Reparation]

130. The 2000 Presidential Primaries.

I was 15-16 at the time. I had realized how ridiculously out of touch Republicans were until we had to watch the debates in my government and politics class.

[RichardRay]

131. Spring 1954 - Army McCarthy Hearings.

I was 8. I watched them with my father. He carefully explained just what the issues were, in terms an 8 y/o understood. The 1968 pushed me WAY to the left. Ive only recently returned to a belief in electoral politics; its being strained.

[Grasswire2]

132. Actively? When I realized the right was deploying Scaife strategy to nullify Bill Clinton

Well, actually, I was radicalized by working for a conservative (who had earlier been one of Nixon's buds) in D.C. Could not compute alleged Xian values with actual conservative dogma.

Then I saw Buchanan. Ugh.

And all the Richard Mellon Scaife thugs deployed to teevee to go after WJC.

And Kenneth Starr. Ugh.

And I started paying close attention.

[Bettie]

133. I grew up mostly with my grandmother

who took me with her to union meetings, Democratic party meetings, and took me into the voting booth with her every election. She would tell me why she was voting for this one over that one. So, I was steeped in it from an early age.

[MineralMan]

134. Probably not long after I started reading MAD Magazine as a kid.

My parents always voted. I've always voted. I bought into that as a responsibility as a citizen very early.

[VWolf]

135. 9/11

That changed me forever

[frogmarch]

136. In 1952 I was 8 years old, and

I heard my dad say to my mom that Richard Nixon was a horse's ass. I liked that funny name. I'd never heard my dad say bad words before, and it was fun - so from then on, I made it a point to eavesdrop on as many of my parents' political discussions as I could. That's how I awakened.

[murielm99]

137. My dad was union.

I helped him distribute literature for Adlai Stevenson when I was eight years old.

I have never been anything but a Democrat.

[stonecutter357]

138. 1986 !

[I_UndergroundPanther]

139. Grew up in a left wing household

Became really aware after I read Abby Hoffman books,listening to Jello biafra and the Dead Kennedy's. I hated Reagan and the so called moral majority Christian fucksticks. Been radically left all my life,got involved with the assemblies of god cult and couldn't deal with the frothing right-wing trash. They made no sense and they were assholes, I didn't have it in me to become like them. I nearly went psychotic while involved and I got out and have trauma from those days. Still triggered by christian right wing assholes.

[Turin_C3PO]

148. Assembly of God church

are a bunch of crazy nutcase sociopaths, for the most part. Glad you made it out!

[I_UndergroundPanther]

158. Me too.

It was harrowing.I met Jay Sekulow, he was an awful person,made my skin crawl and he's arrogant too.

[hermetic]

140. I was always aware,

due to growing up in a military family, living on bases. First major thing I recall is the Cuban Missile Crisis. We kids were all worried we'd be bombed or that our dads would be sent away. JFK's assassination had a huge effect on me and my family. Nixon made me realize our government was far from perfect.

To this day I still march in protests, work for state Dem's at fairs and go door-to-door encouraging people to vote. Last weekend I attended an ACLU Activist Training session. As several of us there said, "I can't believe I'm still having to protest this shit!"

[JeaneRaye]

141. GWB

I always voted, even in primaries, but I became much more aware of what was going on in the world around me shortly before GWB's second term. I think that listening to Randi Rhodes, Stephanie Miller and a few other progressive talk shows also helped push me in that direction.

[SeattleVet]

146. Summer of 1968.

I was 14, and I spent a part of the summer with cousins in northeast Indiana, about 75 miles from Chicago. In mid-August the local cops started hassling anyone that looked a little 'different'...things like stopping us as we walked along rural roads to get someplace or other and saying things like, "If you going to Chicago, better get there!". I returned home to New York (just north of NYC) in time to see the police riots at the Democratic Convention.

My family was always into politics and voted in every election. My grandmother was a poll worker, and they had been a part of the Democratic infrastructure in our community for many years, but it took seeing an out of control police department clubbing and beating kids to really open my eyes. Followed politics ever since that fateful summer, with the Doors' "Light My Fire" and the Beatles' "Hey, Jude" as major parts of the soundtrack.

[MasonDreams]

147. I was 4, with help wrote LBJ "Please stop the Vietnam War"

My father was a Methodist Minister with 2 churches. Then I saw Walter Cronkite. Hey WTF? Why is War?

[GulfCoast66]

149. Unfortunately I was politically wake for the wrong side from my Jr High years.

Reagan generation kid. Bought into the whole small government thing even as I rejected my evangelical upbringing.

Moving to Orlando 30 years ago, international travel, being exposed to those different than me, and capping it all off, President Obama, turned me from a moderate republican to a proudly liberal, social democrat.

Changing my registration to the Democratic Party was the best day in my personal political life.

[Nitram]

150. I first became interested in politics during the Watergate impeachment trial.

I was in college and many of my friends were from Massachusetts and a great deal more politically conscious than I was. My first vote was for for Eugene McCarthy. The Reagan administration turned me into a full-blown liberal.

[polichick]

151. As a kid, I was inspired by...

[hunter]

153. There was no escaping politics in my childhood.

Or religion.

My mom got kicked out of the Jehovah Witnesses because she couldn't stay out of politics.

My mom's family were pacifists.

My dad's father was an Army Air Corp officer in World War II. He joined the Army before the war started to get the hell out of Wyoming and see the world.

Some people watch sports on television as part of their holiday celebrations. In my childhood the adults fought about politics and religion the way some people play rugby. The dirtier the game the better.

**** Earthquake!****

I wonder if that was some kind of message from God...

[The Blue Flower]

154. 1964: Johnson v Goldwater

It felt like much was at stake and the Vietnam war was looming.

[moondust]

155. 60s/Vietnam/Cold War

Taking government and civics classes and trying to figure out...

What's it all about, Alfie?

[madinmaryland]

160. 1973, with the growing scandal named Watergate. I was 12 and what was happening

Was an interesting (though simple) concept to understand for a 6th grader. I have followed things closely since then and voted for the first time in 1980 for Jimmy Carter.

[wnylib]

161. To genx, millenials, etc

Due to Vietnam, civil rights, environment, and women's movements a lot of boomers llke myself were/are on rhe left. (My family were already Dems, though) During Reagan snd Bush Sr years i feared we lost younger people to the "culture wars." It's good to see how many of you saw through the RW BS.

As Madam Speaker Pelosi demonstrates so well, the wisdom and experience of older people is valuable. But the future belongs to the next generations. So I'm glad you're with us. Imagine how many even younger people today are or will be influenced by witnessing the exposure of the Trump crime family and their traitorous thug pals.

It's so important to set a voting example for your kids and grandkids. My childhood neighborhood's voting site was my grade school basement. Before school, at recess, and after school I saw our neighbors and my parents line up to vote.

To paraphrase JFK, we each should pass the torch to the next generation.

Or as Sonny & Cher put it, "The beat goes on."

[central scrutinizer]

162. Reading the Kerner Commission report

On the riots in Detroit, Newark and other cities in 1967. Living in a small 99% white town in Nebraska I was so ignorant of so much. Really opened my eyes and I’ve been far left ever since.

[SaulofTucson]

163. Geraldine Ferraro's VP nomination in 1984 nt