I used to be as "blue" as it comes but now I am older...

[Anonymous]

My entire family went from being Republican to voting Democrat for Obama, both times. They are sick to death of the outdated social warrior issues (gay marriage, abortion) and don't like the gridlock that Congress has created the last eight years. They are all still fiscally conservative.
My grandmother, who is nearly 90, told me she'd never vote for a Republican ever again because of Trump, "if I live to see another election, that is!"

[Anonymous]

55, raised Republican, been a leftie for about 10 years now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What you're describing is pretty common. Unfortunately, it often comes from an "I got mine" mentality that prioritizes the aging population to the detriment of the whole (think, for Social Security spending but against early education spending). I don't know you or your beliefs, but I'd urge anybody in your situation to make sure changing views are not purely self-interested or short-sighted.

- grew up in a town without a high school because the graying population bulldozed it rather than pay property taxes to fund it

I think it more about life experience bring more wisdom to your decisions and thought processes.

What "wisdom" is there in demolishing a school?

High school students benefit from attending a larger high school with more classes, resources, clubs and opportunities. A small town with few families with school aged children is not going to be able to offer the same type of educational opportunities as a high school that is fed by several small towns.

I'm the person without the HS, and this is what I mean by short sighted. Now those older folks want to sell their homes (or their estate does) but young families don't want to buy into the district because their kids will be bussed to a large crowded school. This is a town of 25K people btw, not a village.

Not trying to derail the thread, but this is just such a great micro example of trying to justify something that benefits one group immediately but screws everybody in the end.

[Anonymous]

I've never registered with either party. Voting for Obama in 2012 was the first time I voted Democrat. Like a lot of America I suspect I am fiscally conservative and socially open minded (for a New Englander). I suspect that's why the independents make up a large swath of the voters. I will admit that since the crash, Obama's presidency, the lunacy in the Republican party, I can say that I am heavily leaning democratic.

I really don't like the fallout from Citizens United nor the repeal of Glass Steagall and would like to see that changed. And while a believer in free markets, I don't believe we have free markets. We need to be cognizant of the impact of the globalization of labor and its impact in light of the fact that we don't have free markets.

[Anonymous]

I've always heard that men tend to become more politically conservative with age and women become less politically conservative.

I've always been ultra liberal. If anything, I become more so with age and experience. I also come to understand human nature better, and see what frightened, unthinking sheep most people are. We desperately need shepherds who aren't working for the interests of the corporate oligarchy.

[Anonymous]

I despise both sides only b/c I have lost faith in politics. The system is broken and is run by those who see constituents as pawns.

I'm not even purple. maybe a muddy brown

[Anonymous]

I was rabidly conservative in youth and am now more moderate. I think the overall point is that our idealism mellows out into something more realistic as we get older and experience more of the real world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was rabidly conservative in youth and am now more moderate. I think the overall point is that our idealism mellows out into something more realistic as we get older and experience more of the real world.

I can co-sign this. That quote posted above has always seemed so dismissive of the life experiences of liberals and lefties. I'm under 40, but I most of my family tilted slightly or strongly liberal as they got older. Only my father and his brother have become more conservative (and much more tightly wound, for that matter) as they age.

[Anonymous]

I think the left to right motion was true when most young people were to the left of the spectrum. As in, baby boomers and before. Think many younger baby boomers and Gen Xers have had the opposite experience.

When I was young during the Reagan years, most people I knew were rabid conservatives. Both my DH and I have moved from moderately conservative to almost left wing in the past 15 years. Many (but not all) of my friends have done the same.

[Anonymous]

I think you're more ideological when you're younger. My DH and I both used to be Republicans and saw the world in absolute terms - no work = no welfare, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, etc. Not overly concerned about social issues like gay rights or abortion. Now that we're in our 50s and we realize just how life can bite anyone in the a$$ and look around at the financial mess our country is in and the hate spewing from the right, we now call ourselves socialists. But part of it is that we consider ourselves the Christian Left. Not only has our party been cooped by big business and hatred, so, does it seem, has much of our religion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
"A man who has not been a socialist before 25 has no heart. If he remains one after 25 he has no head."

—attributed to King Oscar II of Sweden

That's beautiful. Thank you.

Love this. Will borrow. And to OP, I flirted with socialism in college, liberal as possible like through my 20s, moderate in my 30s and now in my late 40s would be conservative but appalled by the religious fundamentalism of the R party.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What you're describing is pretty common. Unfortunately, it often comes from an "I got mine" mentality that prioritizes the aging population to the detriment of the whole (think, for Social Security spending but against early education spending). I don't know you or your beliefs, but I'd urge anybody in your situation to make sure changing views are not purely self-interested or short-sighted.

- grew up in a town without a high school because the graying population bulldozed it rather than pay property taxes to fund it

I think it more about life experience bring more wisdom to your decisions and thought processes.

This

[Anonymous]

Blue since before I could vote and the color aligned with Democrats. 56 now and still liberal, although I wasn't Sanders fan, which may be an age thing.

[Anonymous]

Another former conservative Republican who has moderated with age. People who still see everything in back and white by mid-life just never grew up. And btw the heart/head quote in one form or another is also variously attributed to Mark Twain and Winston Churchill.

[Anonymous]

I was raised in a Republican household, went far left, back to the right and, in middle age, have ended up pretty far to the left, politically. I think it's OK to change.

If I ever became rich, I'm sure I would become a Republican in a hurry. I could live with that!