So,what event/person helped to form your political viewpoint?

[Englander]

Why are you a lefty or green or anarchist?

Or liberal or Marxist or Tory?

Who or what helped to decide how you view the world?

[Alpharetta]

1. many things when I was a teen

I read "Johnny Got His Gun" by Dalton Trumbo

I read the papers each day as Watergate unfolded

I saw a good president (Carter) get run out of office by the oil cartel and the effects of our Middle East corporate imperialism, replaced with a president (Reagan) whose administration committed by proxy mass murders of 300,000+ innocents in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, etc.

[Alpharetta]

3. oops. I just realized this was a UK thread. sorry!

:)

[Guy_Montag]

6. You can play

Everyone's welcome.

:grouphug:

[MoJoWorkin]

2. John--and later-- Bobby Kennedy

They got the youth of this country off their butts to do something.
Their deaths were a devastating blow to me and countless others, who had been so uplifted by them.

Dean has been able to create that same kind of connection with youth.
A great leader must inspire and ASK something of others, and stir in them the desire to be of use to the world.

[Lost4words]

4. Hitlers Rise and the Holocaust.

I could never understand how all of Germany could support Hitler and his actions. I now understand all too well that the decenter were effectively silenced. Germany's propaganda machine and the worlds corporate media made little or no attempt to expose the truth. And with the backing of prominent Americans like Prescott Bush and many others. So what if they were taking away the rights and lives of Jews and other inferior life forms.

Many felt that was OK, after all today in the Middle East we are only killing Arabs. GOD is OK with that isn't she?

[Rowdyboy]

5. Hearing my younger sister cry because we couldn't afford to take

her to the dentist. Going with my mom to pick up government "commodities" (early version of food stamps-they gave out great peanut butter!). Seeing my 9th grade drop-out dad drive an 18 wheeler, work his ass off, and barely break even-at best. Listening to my grandfather tell about his life in the Depression and how he was a farm worker/sharecropper while trying to raise enough money to support his wife and child.

Thats basically why I'm a Democrat.

[Mizmoon]

7. Watching my grandfather rise from pauper to rich man

all by the strength of his own will, and a little help from the government. I realized that all that people needed were opportunities and education and there was no telling how far they could go. I want to see to it that, through social justice and basic fairness, anyone with the desire to achieve can do so.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Growing up in the Thatcher 80s

and having a doctor for a father, to whom Thatcher was always "that bloody woman" endangering his beloved NHS.

[Nihil]

9. A long and twisting road

I grew up in a town that was awash with corrupt local politicians
(one lived down the road from me) and saw first-hand examples of
the graft, the kickbacks, the trampling of the law and the complete
apathy towards the "unconnected" members of society.

Schools had their catchment areas "adjusted" then were closed due
to reduced attendance. Listed buildings were torched - deliberate
arson - but only AFTER any valuable pipework had been removed.
There were several housing developments that sprang up after the
"inconviently situated" schools had been removed.

When I turned 18 I voted Conservative in order to protest this state
(I knew that the Tories would never win the borough but I was damned
sure I wasn't going to vote for those thieving Labour bastards).

After a few years at college then starting work (down South as there
were simply no jobs back home), I gradually became wiser ...
most Labour-run towns were awash with corrupt local politicians,
most Tory-run towns were awash with corrupt local politicians,
most Liberal-run towns were awash with corrupt local politicians
and the UK parliament was awash with corrupt national politicians.

Labour MPs cut back education from the masses while they send their
own children to very expensive private schools. (Blair? You bet!)
Both Labour and Tory panders to their paymasters in industry and
squander the national good: National Health Service sacrificed to
BigPharm, public transport sacrificed to BigOil, peace & diplomacy
sacrificed to the War Pigs. Liberal/SDP largely sided with whichever
team promised them to love them in the morning.

Now, at local elections, I find out about the candidates and vote for
the person I believe will do the most good, regardless of the colour
of their adverts. To be fair, this has been ~95% Liberal Democrat
over the last ten or more years and their honesty & reliability at
a local level has given me more confidence in their ability at a
national level than any amount of sound-bites on the radio or TV.

For national elections, I have voted LibDem or Green (though have
been known to vote Monster Raving Loony and Natural Law in the past
due to despair at the mainline candidates).

New Labour? Certainly not while Blair's in charge ... a vote for Blair
is a vote for Bush and I really resent W running my country ...

Nihil