Anyone switched parties since your college days?

My TX high school was almost completely dominated by Republican politics, and I was one of a few non-Republicans. I became more liberal (not necessarily more beholding to the Democratic ticket) during my time at UT and afterwards in graduate school. The ascension of Bush and the neocons in 2000 slowly caused me to throw my lot in with the Dems.

 

i was actually quite liberal during my days at UT, i wanted to stay in austin so i got a job for the government and also worked for an agency and a public interest group. i then needed to earn more money so i went to work in the private sector, had severe culture shock when i saw how the private sector did things and feel in love with it, much less dead weight. ive been very conservative ever since although i am not much of a fan of the current republican party.

 

general:

It is coming back look at the crop of Repbulican governors, any of them would be better than current PE BO.

Just look at what Governor Bobby is doing in Louisiana, especially with healthcare. He is actually doing something other than community organizing. He has a tough job, but he is not voting present.

 

Never affiliated with a party in the US political system, and I don't plan to in my lifetime.

 

I think of myself as a Recovering Catholic

 

I was President of the College Democrats.

 

I grew up in a Democratic family and my grandfather was a Democratic State Senator. I never saw my dad more angry than the day Nixon was elected. I blindly voted for Carter in college. That's the last time I voted for a Democrat for President. Two of my three brothers also now vote predominately Republican.

 

Interesting topic. I grew up in a family of Democrats. My Mom is a hard-core left-wing yellow dog Dem, while my Dad is more the moderate Democrat. My first time to vote was my senior year in HS in 1976, and I was one of only a handful of students from Anderson HS to vote for Carter. The only other time I've voted Dem for POTUS was Clinton's 2nd term. In college I finally started thinking for myself and got caught up in the Reagan revolution. Now, I consider myself a conservative (mainly fiscal) first, and a Republican second. If we get a strong libertarian party that had a chance of winning, I probably would switch because I am socially liberal/moderate.

BTW, both of my parents voted for PE-Obama, yet all 5 of their children did not.

 

a common theme seems to be drifting away from your parents politics. My parents never talked politics much, but pretty sure they vote GOP. I don't get into discussion with my Dad about the current administration, because we don't agree and it just lead to argument in which no one wins.

I was pretty conservative as I entered UT. I had much contempt for the liberal PC-ness of UT in the mid and late 80's. As I graduated from UT in 1992 in a terrible economy with a tight job market, that shaped my opinion and I voted Clinton.

Have never looked back. The 90's were great for me personally, professionally, politically.

 

I went through a severe conservative talk radio phase in college, and became solidly neocon. I grew up R, and listened to learn how to argue more than to learn how to think.

After graduation, through traveling and general growing up-ness, partisanship faded. I'm still conservative in some ways (although I voted Obama), but the past eight years have reminded me too much of the way I used to be.

 

My first reaction is, who doesn't?

I wanted to vote for Sissy Farenthold for governor but was too young. I did turn 18 and vote for McGovern as a freshman.

4 years later I was earning a wage in an industry that Carter was targeting for an extraction. I turned economically conservative, and started voting Republican, with Reagan.

I stopped that trend in 04. What probably hasn't changed is my basic civil libertarian viewpoint, which arose out of life on an Army base during the Vietnam war. To this was added the creed of greed, or whatever, that comes with salaries, wives, kids, cars, college funding, retirement, the all in cost of season tickets..., and taxes.

 

Young Republican in College and voted Reagan, Reagan and Bush. Concerns about the inability to actually be fiscally conservative and quell the ever rising deficit moved me away from the party that talkaed a LOT about fiscal responsiblity but didn't exercise it when it got to the President Desk. The lurch to the right religiously in the GOP moved me more and more to the Democratic side of the aisle. Dole's move against Clinton to make gays in the Military the first course of action cemented me in the Dem ranks.

If the GOP ever can show it can actually be fiscally conservative while at the helm I very well move back to the GOP ranks. However, right now the embrace of ignorance as a component of coddleing the religious ideology of the base would still be an impediment. I do think you will see the GOP morph away from the religious right in the coming years, so there is a possiblity I will switch back.

 

I have supported the Republican in every election where the Republican was a viable option (in Alabama in the 60s there were no Republicans). This began with Nixon in '60 when I was eight.

 

didn't vote for the GOP in the 90's. They had shown the inability to sign responsible budgets from a fiscal prospective for 12 years in 1992. Look at our nation's debt and look at the party affiliation of the President's who have signed most of our deficit spending and debt into law.

For those who voted for the GOP of late they voted for the most fiscally irresponsible group of policians we ahve ever seen in our lifetimes at the National Level.

 

My dad was president of the college Repblicans and know he is a psycho tree hugging liberal. I voted for Bush in 2000 based on him being fiscally conservative. I doubt I will ever vote Republican again.

 

From HS on, very much politically conservative. Voted Bush1/Dole/Bush/Bush.

Got very tired of politics as usual and a lot of the hate seen from my GOP brothers if you will, on here and the radio. Voted Obama this time.

 

a lot of these stories fly in the face of the conventional wisdom that you get more conservative as you get older. Of course, this is all just ancedotal.

In college, i was more conservative politically, but i dressed like a friggin' hippy. Today, i am way way liberal politically, but i dress like a GOP preppy wet dream.

What gives?

 

I voted for the first Bush 2x in my first opportunity to vote for President.

I voted for Clayton WIlliams in my first opportunity to vote for governor. I'm pretty sure I voted for Bush for governor the first time as well.

But I was talking **** about the ACLU in a government class and my professor asked me to give some examples of why they were anti-American or whatever nonsense I was spouting. I didn't have any examples, I was just parroting Rush. So, I did some research, and I started to realize that my political views were not formed because I had thought about them, my political views were formed because I listend to my parents and grandparents. Being a good son, I voted Republican like they did.

Once I realized that, I started to really look at my beliefs and that was when I drifted off the reservation. I am no longer Republican. After the last decade of watching Republicans, I seriously doubt there will come a day when I'll be allowed to vote Republican again.

But I'm also not Democrat, and aside from voting Dem to get that aggy out of the governor's office, I'm not sure I've ever voted Democrat either.

I mostly vote Libertarian, not because I think they are the best party (there are some real kooks there), but because they come a whole lot closer to my ideals than either of the 2 major parties.

 

i grew up in Plano. i was a hardcore little Republican. when i got to UT and could vote in my first election, i voted for Bush the elder over Clinton. but in my time at UT, where i was exposed to a bunch of stuff i didn't see in sheltered little Plano, i started to move to the middle, and then eventually moved left of center. i'm still somewhat conservative financially, but socially more liberal.

thanks Austin.

 

Laphroaig- it's sad to see the necessity to twist reality in order to try and support a poorly thought out conclusion. I can't help you if you insist on believing falsehoods. It's your choice. There was nearly 25% of the population here in Texas that believed that Obama was a Muslim, for example. That is sort of the arena where your "logic" and I put it in quotes out of necessity, drifts due to your partisanship.

Let's look at your grab bag-

---

 

In high school and college, I was slightly to the right of William F. Buckley fiscally (always a social liberal), and that continued until the early 90s.

Then I had an epiphany.

If you want to get people off welfare, you've got to give them an incentive to get off. And that starts with more federally funded daycare.

 

Reagan in my first eligible election in 84 and straight REP ever since. No regrets.

Most of you with UT degrees will grow up to learn two things - 1) you'll eventually like country music, and 2) you'll eventually vote REP. Accept it now, and you'll be a happier person.