What event defines your political outlook?

[omega minimo]

Mine would be the bogus "landslide" of Reagan and the insane marker of "Ollie North is a HERO!"

Are our different outlooks and approaches to current events based on the defining moments of our lives?

Info on Reaganism: http://www.thomhartmann.com

[NMDemDist2]

1. 1968 Democratic National Convention-Chicago IL n/t

[133724]

59. Boy that was a real riot.... The smell of Tear Gas, The Roar of the Crowd

[NMDemDist2]

66. the crack of the billy clubs..

:scared:

[EFerrari]

2. So many but lately, voters rioting at the Ohio statehouse.

The photo has been scrubbed from the net. :(

[blue sky at night]

3. May Fourth 1970

I live about 7 miles from Kent State, and especially the reaction of my mother and adults in general at the time. I was in 10th grade of High School. I was never the same as a student or as a son.

[omega minimo]

8. "Ohio" "Fortunate Son" "Find The Cost Of Freedom"

[XOKCowboy]

21. Me too. I duped your post down below..

Only difference was I was in Oklahoma at the time. The reaction there was mixed. Most people thought the "hippies" got what they deserved but my Pop (bless him) was aghast that Americans had fired upon unarmed Americans. For an ol' country boy he sure had a marvelous world view.

[Phredicles]

4. The nuclear brinksmanship and overall militarism of the early Reagan

years, if I had to name one specific thing.

[DaveinMD]

5. my political outlook

was mostly shaped by my mom, who passed away this year. She taught me about compassion for those less fortunate and the importance of equality for everyone. I really missed her on Election Day this year. She would have been so happy. Every time I talked to her, she would rant about the evil Republicans.

[omega minimo]

9. Rock on, Mom!

:applause:

[DaveinMD]

53. thanks

that means a lot.

[Batgirl]

6. when Pat Buchanan was allowed to address the 92 GOP convention

where he infamously attacked gays and feminists, I was partially awakened from apathy to the realization I could never vote for a Republican.

After Bush was installed I became a Democrat.

[jwirr]

7. The death of FDR. From that time I have always been interested

in what was going on.

[omega minimo]

11. !

:thumbsup:

[Seabiscuit]

10. The JFK assassination and subsequent coverup.

I didn't have to wait decades to see Oliver Stone's movie, "JFK" to know there was a right-wing conspiracy behind it all. I've never trusted a Republican since, and my instincts have served me well.

[rebel with a cause]

26. one question

You didn't suspect Johnson of having anything to do with it?

[Seabiscuit]

44. Yes, I did then, and still do.

As part of the same corrupt Texas political organizations, Johnson was in league with some of the most notorious right-wingers of his time, many of whom had connections to the people in the CIA, etc., who were connected to the assassination plot. And who benefited most immediately from the assassination? Johnson, the right-wing war mongers, and the defense contractors when Johnson gave them their Vietnam war.

[rebel with a cause]

52. Like bush I want to change the constitution

Only I want it to be where no Texan can be president. :sarcasm:

[TahitiNut]

12. JFK: "Ask what you can do for your country."

I have always regarded "country" as PEOPLE, not dirt.

[Warpy]

13. Chance meeting with a Vietnamese college student in 1962

I convinced her I was just a kid (I was), that she'd never seen me before and would never see me again, and could tell me the truth about what was going on. She did.

The next week I was out standing silent vigil against the war with the Quakers.

I knew after that conversation that the government would always lie to get what rich men wanted.

[omega minimo]

14. omg

[scarletwoman]

15. The JFK assassination. But even more than that, when Ruby shot Oswald.

Like most of the country, my family was glued to the television from the day of the assassination on. On the day that Oswald was shot by Ruby, we (my parents and my 2 sisters) were all sitting in our living room together, watching the coverage, and saw Rudy shoot Oswald live.

If you weren't around then, I'm not sure if you can possibly imagine how shocking it was to see a real man really get shot before our eyes.

But it was not the shock itself that changed my outlook forever, it was what my Dad said in that moment: "Well, I guess they've made sure that we'll never know who really killed Kennedy."

I was 14.

sw

[omega minimo]

19. yup

:cry:

[rebel with a cause]

29. I remember

My mother stayed home from church with us (my father was the pastor) and we watched in horror as it happened. I think my mother said something along those same lines. Times were sure different back then when we had a free press.

[uppityperson]

16. my parents teaching me to think. Martin and Bobby.Kent State.

edited to correct, was thinking Ohio when wrote Kent State so miswrote.

[pstans]

17. Watching Dean on CSPAN doing his sleepless summer tour or Obama's DNC speech

[last1standing]

18. I don't have an event, but I do have a document that defines it.

The Constitution of the United States of America. It's the most inspiring and profound document ever produced. Unfortunately, most Americans have either never read it or never took it seriously, it seems. :(

[XOKCowboy]

20. Kent State

I was about to graduate 10th grade and had the draft hanging over my future. Kent State made me start following politics and questioning politicians motives. It marked the end of my innocence.

[ninkasi]

22. Growing up in the 40s and 50s

I grew up in Houston, Tx. Segregation was the law, and I remember wondering why there had to be different restrooms for white and "colored", and different water fountains. My conservative parents made the mistake of sending me to church, a United Methodist, every Sunday. They did not attend themselves, but considered it necessary for me. Oh, my brothers didn't have to go, either.

Seeing the attitudes about equality between the races, between the sexes, the gap between the well-off and the poor, led me to become more liberal as I got older. Although I loved my parents, I saw hypocrisy in them. I saw prejudice, and an unwillingness to change. There was no way for me to reconcile the things I was taught at church to the way society was structured.

I eloped with a man twenty years older than me when I was seventeen, and was estranged from my family until my mother's death almost 3 years later. I like to think that with time, she would have become less prejudiced, and more liberal herself, but there's no way to know. Pope John XXIII died the day of her funeral, then came Kennedy, and Bobby, and MLK, and all the rest. It wasn't so much any single event, as the momentum of the times, and the realization that I wasn't alone in rejecting some of the old ways of thinking.

I'm sixty-three now, and am even more liberal. I can't say how much longer I'll live, but judging from my past, I'll be even more liberal on the day I die.

[Skip Intro]

23. Iraq.

The bullsit ramp-up, the falling in line of even the most supposed Democratic leaders, the manufactured "patriotism" and the utter distain for opposing views. I've never seen anything like it. I will never forget it.

Hundreds of thousands dead for no reason.

I don't go back very far with my polical awareness, but I cannot imagine anything so grotesque.

The theft of 2000 was what brought me to Du, but what really shook me to my very existence was this insane fraudulent war, waged by an insane fraudulent administration.

Never will I forget how we got here. Never, ever, will I vote repuke. That did it.

[aikoaiko]

24. Well, I'll say it -- the attacks on 9/11/01 changed me a lot

and our responses to those attacks even more so.

[Raine]

25. Raygun taking control of the reTHUG party

up till that time I was a repug (a moderate one) his turning it to the right made me realize it wasn't the party I wanted to be in.

[Mme. Defarge]

51. Ditto ...

but first I had to "get religion."

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

27. The Civil Rights Movement.

[rebel with a cause]

28. I always voted for the man not the party

Johnson made me more of a repug in the sixties because I suspected him of being involved in Kennedy's death, did not like his behavior following the assassination, and blamed him for taking us into Vietnam. Then came Nixon and I was left in between the two parties. Over the years the issues took precedent, and I have to admit that I was fooled a few times. One was with the first Gulf War. I swallowed the bs handed out to us. I remember reading later that it was not what they had told us, and I felt like a fool. I remembered my distrust of the government from the sixties and began rethinking my polical identity. When I went back to college in the nineties as a middle aged single mothr of two, I became even more liberal. But it was in the year 2000 when I went back for my masters and began studying the way the US has been involved in the development (and exploitation) of the third world countries that I became so liberal that it separated me from most of the people around me.

I want the right wing nut jobs out of power and out of our government so someday we can go back to voting for the person and not the party.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

30. By far, the war against Iraq.

[enigmatic]

31. This one

http://www.civilization.ca/hist/labour/labh22e.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. December 12, 2000

since that fateful day I have become radicalized, period

[ariellyn]

45. ditto. nt

[renate]

33. my birth

I can't imagine being any other way.

I guess I chose my parents well. :)

[NV1962]

34. The period between Nov 20, 1975 and Dec 6, 1978

Link.

[oasis]

35. American citizens( black) being attacked while attempting to register to vote.

:grr:

[H2O Man]

36. Interesting question.

A single book can alter our lives in a huge way. I was at one point the angriest young person in America. One of the teachers who recognized that there was a human being beneath the anger handed me "The Autobiography of Malcolm X." Of course, I knew of Malcolm, as I was an amateur boxer, and had followed Cassius Clay's changing into Muhammad Ali.

I also think that reading Martin Luther King, Jr's "Letter from the Birmingham Jail" was a huge influence on my outlook. It helped me define an approach to the stumbling blocks encountered in life.

That said, the events would be those that I have participated in, generally at the "grass roots" level, which include the legal appeal for Rubin Carter; a 20-year SuperFund Site(s) environmental case; work in the area defined by the Native American Burial Protection and Repatriation Act; and several others involving "social justice."

If I were to identify the event(s) that define me as a person, it would be the births of my children.

[LeftishBrit]

37. Perhaps originally having two teachers at school...

One of them was intolerant of any weakness, and valued toughness and competitiveness to the extent of scolding children who comforted others who were distressed, or helped them with physical tasks that they found difficult: "Don't baby her!" The other was helpful and constructive, encouraged us to work co-operatively and help each other, was respectful of anyone's special needs, and helped us to use our strengths to overcome our weaknesses. Before I knew anything about party-politics, I perceived the stark difference between these attitudes, and strongly preferred the second over the first; and this may have been in a sense the origin of my strong preference for left/liberal attitudes to society over right-wing attitudes.

As regards actual political events: Maggie Thatcher's election as Conservative Party leader in 1975, and as Prime Minister in 1979.

[Annces]

38. I think the civil rights movement

influenced me when I was young, the struggle for racial equality in America, the hippie era of anti-establishment. I thought if something was wrong, you just needed to fight against it. However as I got older, I realized there was more to life than these issues. I had spiritual experiences while on vacations to Florida, Canada, Missouri, while being in nature, like being flooded with stillness and silent spirits at the same time. I met a medicine person and storyteller, Native American in my early adult years, Johnny Moses. He led spiritual circles of the most odd assortment of people, and lived off of small donations. He was the best person, and yet was almost unnoticed. Darwin was my bible early on, but I have moved on from that.

[sweetheart]

39. The media lynching of Dr. Frederick Lenz

...and all the agencies behind it.

, enabled by the rolling back of the fairness doctrine.

[devilgrrl]

69. Weirdest response ever. Who the fuck is Dr. Frederick Lenz?

That's what turned you into a liberal? Pretty friggin' weak if you ask me.

Then again, I could say seeing Dr. Joyce Brothers on the Merv Griffin Show was the catalyst for me being progressive.

What's your trip anyway?

[11 Bravo]

40. June 5, 1968, Ambassador Hotel. They got Bobby.

[The2ndWheel]

41. The slow process of consolidation and control

over the last few thousand years.

Hey, it's a moment in geological time, so it counts.

[ruiner4u]

42. My history teacher in middle school...

back in the mid-80's...

He was describing the two party system, the congress, and the senate. He made a comment that I think started to form my political leanings. He basicly said that the republicans were generally older who had wealth that they wanted to keep, and the democrats were younger, middle class, and wanted to spread the wealth..

It retrospect, it seems a little socialist but I think he nailed it dead on.. It planted a seed in my mind that makes me a democrat today...

[maine_raptor]

43. Not an event...........a book

The Bible.

The whole "Do unto others" and "Blessed are" thing. That, more than any other "event" formed my political beliefs. I have lived through the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, and now the Oughts. All during that time, those words and concepts have guided my political choices. I'm not very religious in a organized way, but I do cling to these core beliefs and try to live them in everyday life and use them to judge politicians and issues.

As to why a "D" next to my name; Aside from what is stated above, one of the actual "reasons" why I will NEVER vote for an "R" is simple.

The Republican Party is the only political party in American History to nominate Richard M. Nixon to the Presidency not once, but three times. Any political party stupid enough to do that will not get my vote.

[LostInAnomie]

60. As an atheist/agnostic, I hate to admit it but...

... my political philosophy is deeply shaped by the more humanistic teachings of Jesus. I guess something from Catholic school carried over after all.

[omega minimo]

62. The Golden Rule is universal

:hi:

[rebel with a cause]

71. You can always agree with a prophet

Without being a part of a religion. I am not sure of what I am, but I also feel shaped by the humanistic teachings of the man.

Speaking of prophets, I heard a Muslim man the other night question why Christians felt the way the way they did about them. He said something along the lines of - don't they realize that the teachings of Jesus is a major part of the Quran.

[Hidden Stillness]

46. 1970s Return of Feminism

With me, it was the re-emergence of feminism during the '70s, and a lot of coverage of the issue for a few years starting about 1971. I started reading about Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan and others in Life, Newsweek, and other magazines, I read the late Caroline Bird's great book "Born Female," feminists began appearing on TV--Phil Donahue went National that year, from Dayton, Ohio. At this same time, a lot of Hollywood stars, movie and TV, became feminists, and gave really articulate, exciting explanations of what it was all about, and this was covered in fan magazines--Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, John and Yoko, Marlo Thomas, who changed the whole storyline of "That Girl" as she became a feminist, and understood what it all meant, etc. It was a thrilling time, like "our time had come." It was the first time I had ever felt that politics, and even the larger world itself, had anything tangible to do with me, with "us," as if I could just join something, not be excluded and rejected, and that the things they wanted to advance and fight for, were recognizable to me, and would be about things I also lived like. It was real, real life.

I felt, finally, that some part of the world, and reality, that I knew and lived was being referred to, instead of the whole public world being "them and theirs," only males and theirs interests, and everything told the way they tell it. Now suddenly, I could live too, and not have to twist everything around until it was "their version" of the story. I suddenly felt a connection to the larger world, to my country, to a great movement of history and destiny. Even confronted with the bigoted, dismissive treatment of the feminist movement by the male media, which they called "women's lib" just to ridicule it and refuse to give it any respect, I still now knew that there were millions of us, that we were growing, and that we were on the side of history and justice, and would win. We started to have several incredible, and thrilling victories: job discrimination lawsuits, winning elections, getting credit and bank loans, and the legalization of abortion.

I grew up in a political family--union household, very educated middle class, so educated actually, that I grew up knowing that Sargent Shriver of the Johnson Administration was a hero, and why (designed many War on Poverty programs, VISTA, etc.)--and so I was always aware and knowlegeable, always loved American history and Social Studies in school, etc., but this really made me come to life and give me something to live for.

Then the backlash started, and demonic bastards like Reagan, and the creepy little groups that began to infiltrate and take over the Republican Party, turned back the tide, killed much of the new legislation and protections, and destroyed all the progress that all these good people had just made.

[omega minimo]

49. "destroyed all the progress that all these good people had just made."

Growing up with that progress, it was insane observing "Reagan, and the creepy little groups that began to infiltrate and take over the Republican Party" intentionally "turn back the tide" and even more insane to observe the majority of Americans go along with it.

Now Thom Hartmann talks about the effects of 26 years of Reaganism and "what we can do about it." If only the country hadn't let all the progress be dismantled in the first place......................

[treestar]

47. No single event

Being raised by a family of traditional Democrats (blue collar roots - now my various ancestors cannot understand a working man voting Republican, and if they so do, it is only over the abortion issue - they are Catholic)

Then Reagan and his conservative policies being when I was at college age.

Then the reaction to Gulf War I, which struck me as somehow wrong.

Then the more egregious reaction to 911, mostly the civil liberties issues.

[UTUSN]

48. Growing up in the afterglow of the FDR legacy n/t

[omega minimo]

50. Thank you all for sharing these insights and memories

It sounds obvious to say that what formed us politically were basic human responses to events-- that no punditocracy or perception managers or consultants are needed to explain, for folks to know exactly what is goin on.

[XOKCowboy]

54. Bob Dylan - Ya don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows

I'm just hoping that the rest of America realizes that their weatherman's been lying to them for the last 6 years.

[omega minimo]

56. lol

good point. thank you (and bob)

[kentuck]

55. The War on Poverty and the War in Vietnam...

I was in the middle of both, being born in Appalachia and serivng in Vietnam during Tet of '68...I was then a supporter of McGovern in '72 and Jimmy Carter in '76, following Watergate. However, knowing the difference between being poor and being in poverty, I would have to say growing up without running water, without electricity, sometimes without food, but never without hope, that shaped my political beliefs more than anything.

[WiseButAngrySara]

57. SCOTUS's decision in the 2000 election. ....n/t

[Blue_In_AK]

58. The assassinations. n/t

[Selatius]

61. They torched the College Democrats' homecoming parade float in October 2004 here in Mississippi.

I was with there at the party that night. It was one of the Bush-Kerry debates, and I had gone to sleep early that night after becoming inebriated. I woke up around 2 AM to commotion, and it turned out that they set on fire the parade float we had parked right next to the house after the parade ended. The thing was parked up right next to the damn house, and they torched it when we were still in the house.

There's nothing like arson and fire in the middle of the night in good ole Mississippi to get the blood boiling.

[rebel with a cause]

73. Hmmmm, torchings in Mississippi

Brings images to my mind. Long ago (1961) I went to the south for three weeks to visit my married sister and I will never forget it.

I grew up in a small town in a white county. Racism was all around us, but my mother protected us from that type of thinking as much as she could. When I went south in my mid teens, I was surprised by what I saw. It was a whole different world. Beautiful in some ways but......

One day we went to large department store. I went to get drink from an older looking drinking fountain and was shocked when my sister sharply hit the back of my head as I was drinking. "Do you want to get arrested?" she asked me as she pointed to the sign above the fountain that read "colored". She pointed at a new fancy drinking fountain several yards away that had the sign "whites only" above it and told me I had to drink from that one. I refused, I had already gotten my drink, I didn't need another. She explained later that people were being arrested for crossing the colored line and that you had to be careful not to upset anyone in the south during this time. I listened to my sister talk but didn't understand really what she was talking about. It was all foreign to me. I was so dumb, it is a wonder I did not ask her to show me the line I shouldn't cross.

There were other experiences on that trip that made me aware of things that were going on that I would never have realized if I had stayed in my mid-western lily white world. Later when I watched the civil rights battles going on (I was still young and very controled by my parents, no freedom bus for me), I understood why the people had to stand their ground and fight the abuse they had suffered for so long. I understood that separate but equal did not mean equality.

[ConsAreLiars]

63. Vietnam

It blew away all the myths of "America the Beautiful." There's a lot of truth in those lyrics, but they describe an ideal, not the reality of power. I saw one lie after another being told by power about that war, and learned that the ideal and the reality were two different things.

The assassinations of political leaders and the many murders of mass level dissidents during that period made that distinction far too clear. I learned why there is such a divide, and that understanding has shaped my life choices ever since.

[jgraz]

64. Gulf War I

That's when I finally realized that the elites in this country would go to any lengths to gain money and power. Before then, I had always thought that no matter how stupid or selfish they were, they had the same human conscience that we all did.

[Kickin_Donkey]

65. The issuance of Executive Order 9066 in early 1943 ...

which provided for the incarceration of Japanese Americans, including my four grandparents, all of my aunts and uncles, and my mother and father, ages 7 and 13, respectively, at the time.

I don't remember it of course; I wasn't born until 1962.

[etherealtruth]

67. Reagan's assault on basic human decency, compassion ...

...and denial of responsibility to the "least" or most fragile among us.

[omega minimo]

68. There it is

[LeftishBrit]

74. Yes. Same here - though in my case it was Thatcher.

She and Ronnie were two of a kind.

[etherealtruth]

75. Peas in a pod

I was 18 in 1980 ... I knew then that society had obligations to individuals in need.

[MrCoffee]

81. August 5, 1981 - PATCO strikers fired.

[etherealtruth]

82. That was horrible!

[VOX]

70. JFK, MLK, RFL all gunned down like dogs in a 4-year, 8-month time-span...

With each successive murder I turned farther leftward. And each of those murders changed the course of the United States considerably. A once-bright future -- and the hope it carried -- was gone, by **bullets**, in public, in the United States, for God's sake. Absolutely incredible. When I think of any one of those events today, I just shake my head as a wave of depression washes over me. It's still incredible. But the right wing and its military-industrial complex (the monster that soldier-statesman Ike warned us about) had taken over. You can go directly from Nixon thugs to today's robber barons with no bafflement. Even some of the players are the same.

[undeterred]

72. Carter losing to an actor.

Americans are stupid.

[Jawja]

Patrick Buchanan's

speech at the 1992 Republican Convention, where he called for a "holy war."

[Jawja]

76. Patrick Buchanan's

speech at the 1992 Republican Convention, where he called for a "holy war."

[Dora]

77. The Clinton investigations and impeachment, followed by

...the 2000 Presidential election farce.

[KamaAina]

78. Katrina: "Everything changed on 8/29".

I honestly did not think I could possibly hate the repukes any more than I already did. And then it happened. They just sat there while my former home lay in ruins, with my former neighbors clinging to rooftops, and they did nothing. Well, all right, Bush** did strum on a guitar, but that was about it. :sarcasm:

Heckuvajob, Brownie, and all the rest of you heartless swine!

edit: and they continue to do nothing, fifteen months later. For shame! :grr:

[A-Schwarzenegger]

79. Reading _RUSH TO JUDGMENT_ in 1968.

Mark Lane's book dissecting the Warren Commission.
Till then I'd believed Oswald did it.
I read the first 50 pages and got up and started walking
around the room, going, "My God, they framed him, they framed
him." It changed everything for me more than the assassination
itself.

[Uncle Joe]

80. The "War Against Gore" by the mass corporate media

Although this is not a one time event, it began March 99 and lasted through the coup of 2000, my view of American Journalism has been forever altered and sad to say not for the better. To this day, I believe, the American People were sold out by our so called fourth estate guardian watchdogs for democracy, and they cannot be trusted anymore.