What stimulated your interest in politics (at least enough to pay attention!)

[NRaleighLiberal]

I grew up pretty apolitical - certainly liberal/Democrat, but even the election and disaster of Reagan and the blandness of Dubya I didn't really draw me in to what could be described as actively paying attention. I am curious about when others in the DU community caught the fire...

edited to add - for me, it was the election theft of 2000 and my utter disbelief that someone as unqualified as Dubya II could possibly be our president.

[Echo In Light]

1. I became politically aware as a teenager in the 80s - so Reagan admin's corruption made me....

... take notice. Clinton was the first time I voted.

[SteppingRazor]

2. I voted in my first presidential election in 2000. In Florida.

After that experience, after seeing what the Republican Party did here, it was pretty hard not to be active.

[azmouse]

3. I've always been a little interested in politics but

it was the theft of 2000 that woke me up to educate myself at least a little so I could rebut the RWers talking points.

[ChicagoSuz219]

25. Me, too! 2000 turned me into a political junkie! nt

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

4. Other:

After years of anti-apartheid and/or no nukes activism, I finally jumped on the political bandwagon by joining Harvey Gantt's senate campaign against King Cracker Jesse Helms, back in the late 80s.

The Helms campaign was the most thug-filled, corrupt, and openly racist political campaign I had ever experienced. I've been die-hard anticonservative ever since then.

[NRaleighLiberal]

9. Good for you...we watched from afar...were just moving to Raleigh around that time.

Jesse disgusted me from a distance, but really appalled me when in the same state. May he not rest in peace.

I actually work with the woman whose husband refused to fly the flag at his building at half mast. He is a hero of mine!

[mvd]

5. During the Reagan administration, I started noticing politics

I was only 12 when Reagan left office, though, so I didn't quite have a complete understanding - I listened to my Democratic parents. Sometime during the Dukakis campaign, I knew why it was so important to be a Democrat.

[RoyGBiv]

6. Becoming self-aware ...

I've been politically aware since before most people can pronounce "politics."

Went to DC when I was about 5 and remember Grandma saying as we were taking a tour of the White House, "Son, the biggest liar in the country lives here." (This was Nixon.)

Actually, I guess my answer is that my grandmother stimulated my interest throughout my life.

[LisaM]

7. Born that way

I don't ever remember NOT being interested in politics. My mom says I started watching the news when I was two.

[notesdev]

8. My background

I got into politics as a teenager, through a friend who introduced me to the local Democratic Party club. Before that my brain was pretty much exclusively geared to chasing girls.

[ThomWV]

10. War. I cast my first vote Absentee from Viet Nam. I felt "Invested" in the outcome

1968.

Not that my vote made any difference what so ever. It began a very long trend in which the person I voted for lost.

[Sinti]

11. When I was a small child, before Nixon resigned

my grandmother's shock and horror at what she saw. She named them, but not by the names they used on TV - she was obviously seriously terrified. My mother worked for the Congress as a reporter/transcriber so I got a lot of information even at that young age, but it was my grandmother's shock that we had allowed Nazis into the states, changed their names, and called them statesmen according to her panic attack that got me.

My grandmother, while living in France, was taken in at least once a week by an SS man for questioning - generally about my grandfather's whereabouts. My grandmother was a citizen of the UK, and had some kind of protection that the rest of my family did not enjoy. I had heard these stories from the time I could hear. As regards her shock, I thought she was seeing things/going senile or something, and wanted to calm her down. I always felt compelled after that to keep an eye out (read the paper, etc), because of all the things she told me.

Later I found out about Operation Paperclip...

edited for typo

[tosh]

39. Amazing story....

but what a shame your grandmother had to live with that fear.

I did not know about Operation Papaerclip.

[Sinti]

40. I know and apparently she wasn't crazy

I'm not sure how to feel about that - not crazy should be good. OTOH, in this case crazy is at least curable.

She had quite a reaction to Reagan's wreath laying upon the graves of Nazis at Bitburg in '85 - not quite as strong as the initial shock. I'm glad she didn't live to see * - it would have been a fate worse than death.

[NRaleighLiberal]

12. looking pretty interesting - keep em coming!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

13. The prospect of an early death.

Or an uncomfortable one.

[treestar]

14. 1992

the first time I donated to or worked on a campaign - must have been Clinton.

[Blue_In_AK]

15. JFK assassination,

civil rights struggle and Vietnam.

[H2O Man]

16. I was raised

in a family where politics and social issues were constantly being discussed. There were many relatives who were politically active in my extended family.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. White kids spitting on an old Black man in Jacksonville Beach, FL. 1957.

Along with all the familiar epithets. That was on a school bus I was riding. Later, a nice grey-haired bespectacled teacher told us that "We won't allow niggers in this school, ever."

I was 13 at the time. From California, and I was shocked.

Vietnam was another moment. I was asked to extend my enlistment in the Marines to kill people I didn't know, sympathized with, might even liked, in Vietnam. I refused.

[HughMoran]

18. Viet Friggin' Nam & civil rights movement

You seem to have left out civil rights & equal rights (for women)

[timeforpeace]

19. My mom was active. Always dragging me to functions, got to meet Senators and Congressmen when I was

pretty young but old enough to be star struck. Been involved as an elected official and volunteer as an adult.

[emulatorloo]

20. 1968

[dixiegrrrrl]

21. Several:

1. 1963....hubby joined Army, sent to Viet Nam as an " adviser" when I knew damn well troops were fighting, not advising. This was just after JFK was killed.

2. 1966...first son born. Amazing how pacifist a Mom can become 5 minutes after delivery.
1968. Son #2 born, Nixon's bullshit could not be covered up.

3. 1970...ERA......I woke up all the way. Became radical, never looked back.

today, I have 2 left wing sons, an ex-husband, miles of marches under my belt, and damn!
we still are fighting for what we gained back in 1970.

[Lucian]

22. Someone as passionate and compassionate as Paul Wellstone.

And Dennis Kucinich.

[DailyGrind51]

23. The possibility of getting drafted and sent to Vietnam.

[guitar man]

24. Reaganomics

Damn near starved to death in the 80s and couldn't figure out why for a while.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

26. Harassing passionate people from the other side of the fence.

I was the middle child. It was my duty to surreptitiously start every argument, win the argument, and then get the other person blamed for it. Manipulation and aggrivation... it's a gift. Most of the fun is derived from the fact that people grant you every bit of power to upset them in an argument, especially on the internet. It's only natural I learn enough to argue (in depth) about politics. Hell, half the time I argue something it's not even my personal feeling or stake in the matter.

The only subject I really get real atimate about is gun-control. Mostly because people are pretty spirited about the discussion and usually wrong, as well. Makes it real easy to fluster them.

Imagine Dr. Cox from Scrubs. My personality is alot like that.

[tosh]

27. I grew up in a town where racial inequality and poverty

were in my face. My dad patiently and honestly tried to answer all of my "Why" questions. My family often discussed politics. My mom and I watched the coverage of JFK's death and funeral together - I was all of 5 years old. Viet Nam, Watergate, Desegregation - I was quite young but very aware thanks to my family. High school debate introduced me to policy and research and made me a news junkie. Then at 17 I spent a few weeks on a study trip in the UK. I was impressed at how much the average Joe there knew about politics in the U.S. and realized that level of knowledge was not matched in my own country!

My "activism" has increased with age and so has my curiosity. I'm lately amazed at the interconnectedness of it ALL, LOL! It's all coming together in ways I never imagined.

[Barack_America]

28. Other: Gulf War.

The first.

My grandma was a bleeding heart Irish liberal too, so the seed was definitely planted early.

[NRaleighLiberal]

29. Getting more and more interesting. keep it going!

[Blue_Tires]

30. the Clinton race in 1992

That was when i first started paying real attention to national politics full-time...I was too young to vote (16), but when Bill came on the scene, politics didn't seem to be 'just' for my parents and grandparents anymore...

[Greyhound]

31. I was born into it. n/t

[branders seine]

32. Kennedy versus Nixon

1960

[FreeStateDemocrat]

33. Watching the 1956 Democratic convention on the tube with JFK closing the deal for me and politics.

After the 2004 Swift-boating of John Kerry and now the BO disappointment I am no longer even registered to vote so the fascination has pretty much ended. But old habits are hard to break so I still read about the clowns I just don't really give a shit what happens. The fix is in with corporate American now completely owning the Democratic Party.

[RagAss]

34. The Clinton Impeachment process.

[PJPhreak]

35. All it took was some...

Lying Sack'o Shit saying "I am not a crook"

[NRaleighLiberal]

36. This is interesting - a few main themes emerging, probably depends on our ages.

[slackmaster]

37. Other: Local environmental issues

Urban sprawl and the "Los Angelization" of San Diego.

[Crunchy Frog]

38. Iraq war.