How did you become a Democrat?

[coloradodem2005]

Here is my story. I was born when Carter was President, but Reagan was the first one I remember. Mainly because my brother did not like him. He always told me that. He watched the Oliver North trial religiously. In 1988, the Bush/Dukakis election was on the horizon. He was rootins so hard for Dukakis. He was also rooting for the Democrats to hold the house and the senate. When the first Bush won he was so mad that he yelled at the T.V. when he came on. Fast forward 4 years to 1992. I was 13 and was getting more into politics at the time. I keep hearing that we were in a recession. Bill Clinton is the winner of the Democratic nomination, and I watched the convention where they talked about bringing fiscal responsibility back to the WH. I was rooting for the Democrats. Clinton gets elected. My brother was ecstatic over this. Going through the 8 years of his presidency, things started to change. I am in college. I am taking economics classes. They did talk about the American economy. Instead of the gloom and doom I got when Bush I was president, there is much more positive news. This is by 1998/1999. 2000 rolls around. The Dems and Repubs have chosen their candidates. I thought that Al Gore would be a good environmentalist and would continue the positive things about Clinton's Presidency. I also thought, we don't want Bush as our president. I did not trust him one iota. This was the first election I could vote in. I voted for Gore. I kept watching and hoping that Gore would get Florida. I was unhappy with the outcome. I got really sick of Bush when he pushed for the Iraq war. Even more so when I graduated college and couldn't find a job worth shit. It makes you wonder and connect dots, when you grew up with a very smart president and then have a very stupid one.

In essence, my brother had a huge influence on my political beliefs since he got me to favor dems. Bush II made me a full fledged Democrat.

[citizen snips]

1. My parents are Democrats.

And now that I am old enough to understand the issues I know that the Democrats are a lot better for this country.

[Lostnote03]

20. By Default...!

........n/m

[NicRic]

23. Parents ,Grandparents , Siblings !

We are all Dems . I remember as a young teenager ,asking my 83 yearold grandfather, who was born in Italy ,however he fought as an American in WWI, why he was a Dem ! He told me that he always felt the Dems where the party of the working man and the repugs ,where the party of special favors for the large corperations and part of the milatary industrial complex, that will keep our country in war after war !

[KissMyAsscroft]

2. The Clinton Witchhunt was it for me...

That pointed me in the right direction..

The intolerance from the right is really easy for me to despise..

[Deja Q]

3. Born in '72, I remember Carter/Reagan election and had a gut feeling...

that Reagan was a real stinker.

How right I was.

[Cat Atomic]

7. Hey same here. 1972.

I also remember the Carter/Reagan election. I still remember my dad's exasperated, "great- get ready kid, this Reagan guy is a real asshole".

Boy was he ever right.

[mhr]

4. By Birth!

eom

[shanti]

31. exactamundo, mon ami!

dem born and bred!

[demconfive]

5. The usual way.

An older woman. A bottle of wine. I was young and impressionable. One thing led to another. Boom! The next morning I woke up a Democrat.



Actually , I was born into it. Both my parents were lifelong, vocal, democrats. The arguments they made made sense to me, so there you go.

[Zynx]

6. I became a Democrat in 2000.

Before that I was a liberal Republican leaning independent who supported many Democrats. I became a Democrat after McCain's attempt to break the power of the ultra-conservatives was broken. I was also turned off by Bush's flaunting of his executions in Texas.

[mitchum]

8. I was born with both a brain and a heart

[Military Brat]

9. The Devil made me do it.

Or to be more precise, bush. My parents are Dems, but I've always registered as an Independent. This year, I changed it to Democrat. Fact is, I think like a Dem, act like a Dem, vote like a Dem. So it was time to renounce the inappropriate Independent label.

BTW, I was with a group of four today. Each and every one has recently changed their status to Democrat, simply because of bush and his policies. And that's the only good thing he's done for any of the four of us.

[bowens43]

10. It was genetic

I was born this way.

[greendog]

11. I'm not a Democrat

I'm a progressive independent.

[solinvictus]

12. Bush the Second and Newt Gingrich

I'm fairly conservative on many issues, but I'm consistent enough to despise the hypocrisy of these two men. If Bushco represents the aims of the Republican Party, count me out.

[WatchWhatISay]

13. jiacinto, is that you?

Some of the circumstances seem to fit and the writing style is similar...?

[lapauvre]

14. I don't know the exact moment

But I was a republican from 1956 until 1983. Something happened, I can't remember what, in 1983. But I sure as hell remember what happened in 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987 and the corruption, the constitutional violations, the co-opting of the flag and the cross, and a bunch of other stuff. I would never be a republican again. With all their money, they couldn't pay me enough.

The Republicans became about racism, economic Darwinism, theocratic intentions, paranoid, judgmental and controlled by a bunch of really weird people. It has a well constructed goal of ridiculing and defeating the only viable opposition: The democrats.

I will never support a one party system in MY country. That is why I am a Democrat.

[booley]

15. Simple..I'm a green/libertarian...

..who realizes that only the winning canidate gets to decide stuff.

Dems may not be perfect but they are far more likly to support civil rights, the environment, ect..then republicans are. And far more likly to win then a third party.

as to when I realized that Repubs are not to be trusted generally (with notable exceptions..) is when i was a little lad and I read that reagan claimed that trees caused smog.

The sudden understandign that I was a hundred times smarter then the leader fo the free world and the icon of the modern conservative movment was an epiphany.

of course, only being around 9 or 10, i didn't quite phrase that way at the time.

[Printer70]

16. Centrism drove me off, Dean brought me back

The centrism in the 90's including the heartless welfare reform and refusal to provide healthcare for the 40 million men, women, children uninsured drove me off. Dean is returning the party to its progressive roots.

[Impeach_Bush]

17. The stolen election of 2000, what else?

I guess I could also bring up fiscal irresponsibility, or the rush to war. I was wavering pre-2000, now I'm a solid Dem.

[newyawker99]

24. Hi Impeach_Bush!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[jab105]

27. me too...

my parents are livelong Republicans...the 2000 election, I voted for Gore, but what has happened after made me very solidly Dem...

[nickgutierrez]

18. 9/11

Probably a pretty common story, but here's mine.

9/11/01

Sitting in my high school calculus class, I watched the second of the two planes crash into the World Trade Center, watched as they showed the aftermath of the plane that flew into the Pentagon, watched as they showed the downed plane in Pennsylvania, and watched the towers fall.

I went through my automatic flag waving idiot phase, then I started asking questions.

- Who did this?
- Why?
- Why wasn't this prevented?

War in Afghanistan. No bin Laden, which I thought was the whole idea of going into Afghanistan. Worse, no Mullah Omar, or any major Taliban official, which, of course, could possibly lead to the re-establishment of the Taliban in that region.

Then I find out about the Bush, Inc. plans to build an oil pipeline through Afghanistan, and come to the conclusion that the pipeline plans, not bin Laden, demanded war, rather than investigation, imprisonment, interrogation, punishment, and future prevention.

Well, I figured, it couldn't have been all bad. I mean, Afghanistan is a safer place now, right?

Wrong. Two attempts on Karzai's life later, I started to smell a rat.

Then, they started to "hawk" Iraq, and the smell that once was a rat became a stench of unavoidable, unmistakable, and truly massive proportions. A little investigation, and I found PNAC, I found Scott Ritter/Will Pitt's "War Plan Iraq", and I found a little activist group on my college campus that I'm still somewhat active with a year later.

I came to the conclusion that all war was morally indefensable, and I know the Repugnant Party doesn't hold those views. Thus, the Democratic Party became the party for me.

[corporatewhore]

19. Dennis Kucinich at National Campus Greens Convention

I was totally blown away by his speech and am now actively campaigning for a (gasp) democrat!! He is such an extraordinary man,I dont care when some of my green/socialist/anarchist friends call sell-out !

[Piperay]

21. Raised in a repug family

but me and my whole family had had enough of it after 8 yrs with Raygun as Governor and when he ran for President we couldn't tolerate him or the party anymore. Proud to say that after voting for Ford not a single one of us ever voted repug again, been Democratic since about 1977 on. :-)

[Lexingtonian]

22. the ridiculous election of 1980

The hyperbole and smugness and plain unadulterated venal stupidity of Republicans and Powers That Be in the public 'discourse' of that time made me realize, as a teen, that many or most adults just don't bother with wisdom or shame or foresight in the least. Nor do they actually listen to what is told them in newspapers. It was all a horrid, arrogant, oppressive abuse of mindless nostalgia. All the stupid and all the clever people seemed to be Republicans at that time, yet none of the perceptive or the wise seemed to be.

[proud patriot]

25. I am the way God Made me

An opinionated Liberal and proud of it

[UrbScotty]

26. For some reason, I loved Bill Clinton

I just loved him during the mid-1990's.

I liked him so much, and I wanted him to beast Bob Dole. I was so worried that he would lose in 1996, but look what happened to that worry!

I was disgusted by Gingrich and Starr and their ruthless assault on Clinton in 1998.

In 2000, I had a feeling the election was stolen.

Less than a month after Bush became President, my grandmother died (although I blame that on just coincidence)

[Nikia]

28. Always have been a Democrat

It may have been because I spent a lot of time with my mother's parents when I was little and they were always calling Reagen and Bush sr. liars and thieves. The Republicans, at the National level, were the enemy. My grandmother was on the Democratic county central committee and was good friends with all the local Democratic politicians and campaigners. They did have a few friends that were local Republican politicians because they went to their church and usually argued with them if they came over. My dad's parents were Republicans and his mother was on the Republican county central committee but were not as vocal, at least around us little Democrats.
Because of my family upbringing, I find it strange that anyone would not be interested in politics because it was my grandparents interest.
What kept me a Democrat and made me one in true belief was the book the Lorax, which I read before I went to elementary school. Also contributing to my beliefs was the Constitution and the Bible, with a focus on the teachings of Jesus, and the speeches of FDR, the Kennedys, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

[Kickin_Donkey]

29. Dunno ...

Like a lot of people, I guess I was just born a Democrat. I grew up in a conservative farming area of the Central Valley, but both my parents were/are Democrats, although they weren't overtly political when I was young.

I remember the '72 election, when I was 10. We held a poll in my 5th-grade class. The vote was something like 28 for Nixon, and 2 for Hubert Humphrey. You guessed it -- I was one of the two who "voted" for Humphrey. So, I knew I was a Dem even then if not even earlier. Incidentally, the only other person in the class who supported Humphrey was a girl, Nancy, who was one of the smartest in the class (along with me, of course!). Not surprising. Even then, she had that liberal spirit in her bearing. I wonder what she's doing now.

As I moved through my teens, I was always concerned about the environment, civil rights, and minority issues. So, I was surely a Dem.

Then, when I was a freshman in college, Reagan was elected. And all the demons of this country came out -- Moral Majority, supply-side economics, puppet president, James Watt, Rehnquist, neutron bomb, Iran-Contra, etc. Needless to say, I'm still a Democrat.

Mike

[Kickin_Donkey]

40. CORRECTION

I meant George McGovern, not HHH, as the Dem candidate in '72.

[morgan2]

30. I dont know if I consider myself a Democrat..

But wanting to be able to vote for DK in the primary got me to register as one.

[dad]

34. primaries

You know, if our primary were not in MAY I might register D just to vote for Kucinich in that

[VTMechEngr]

32. Grew up

and started thinking for myself.

[Kinkistyle]

37. Exactly. Went to college, met and heard different points of views

Instead of the homogenous B.S. that was constantly being fed to me by the tube, my folks and my community, after I went to college, I was introduced to many different viewpoints and cultures and naturally evolved to where I am now.

[Bucky]

33. I was born a Democrat, but I love those conversion stories best

My parents raised me to think for myself. We're all Democrats. I'm trying to do the same for my daughter. Her mother is a Republicaness, but the kid's in rebellion and is a solid Democrat. Yay, the family tradition continues!

[Shananigans]

35. Common Sense!

Although I was born into a strongly dem. family, I did take some time in college to research differences in the parties. Pretty much everything coming from the conservative side made me slightly ill! Reagan, Bush I...they left that icky taste in my mouth...

Introduce William Jefferson Clinton and a love affair between this country, Billyboy and myself began!

Although I am not necessarily happy with the state of the Dem. Party in the US (Primarily my home state) I will be "forever a dem"!

[Cleita]

36. My parents were Republicans and I was raised with

all the conservative bullshit. I was fortunate though to have lived in both my parent's countries here and in Chile. So when it was time for me to register to vote, I hesitated and registered as an Independent. I voted the Democratic ticket though and soon changed my registration to Democrat.

I didn't tell my parents but when I went out on strike on the job, my father agreed that it would be safer for me. When I walked the picket line and became involved with the union, he knew. I felt bad about it, but....

[kerry-is-my-prez]

38. Grew up among Republicans. The Clarence Thomas thing did me in.

I've been moving further and further to the left ever since. I'm ashamed I ever voted for a Republican now... What was I thinking???

[Davis_X_Machina]

39. My grandfather, a union mason,

my other grandfather, a union truck driver, my grandmother, a union theater usher -- there used to be such things -- my mother and father, both union teachers, would all disown me, or curse me from beyond the grave, if I were anything but a Democrat.

[kysrsoze]

41. It started with my parents, but I've always formed my own opinion

My dad never told me who he voted for in elections, but we've had a life of ups and downs. I've gone from being one of the most fortunate kids in the neighborhood to one who was part of a family that moved to follow jobs. We've almost lost our home at times and my family has worked very hard to succeed (sometimes merely meaning 'survive').

My parents paid for my tuition, but during grad school my fiance was on public aid and I was working two jobs to pay for school and provide for my family. The biggest thing that made me into a serious liberal was taking a course in non-Western politics, where I learned how much US corporations had taken advantage of third-world citizens for profit - even Nestle (absolutely nasty policies). I've always believed in fairness, but higher education taught me just how unfair things are in general, and how much work has to be done to make this whole world livable, including living in the US which seems to be tougher every day.

[FDRrocks]

42. Similar.... but not becoming a Democrat...

I was in high school one day... and I heard the election was stolen. I was like "WTF" and read about it (never read news before). I became addicted to news. I've been addicted to politics ever since. I'm not a Democrat since I'm liberal, but the stolen election solidified me against the right wing government. The continuous reading combines with a general respect for democracy, human rights, and social justic leave me in the position I am in now, a VERY liberal capitalist.