Has anyone here switched their political views?

No—but I’ve learned a lot about other ones via mostly peaceful discourse.

Not switched, but absorbed way more information understanding the other side. Basically I try to generalize less than before. Same with religion.

I never really had any…until Obama. The republicans made such asses of themselves that I refuse to have anything to do with them, so I guess I’m a democrat now.

@Dutchess_III wait ‘til the democrats do something that leaves you pissed at them too.

@Dutchess_III – Please explain.

I was fairly liberal in high school, kind of a libertarian at the beginning of college, then shifted more and more to just outright anarchist/collectivist with a particularly strong green streak. I can easily be described as a radical environmentalist, or just generally a radical.

Yeah, I used to give a shit & now I don’t. Here in England Town they’re all a bunch of lying cheating arse licking bleep bleeps! Still, their mothers love them I suppose :¬)

When I was growing up my dad was a registered Republican, and my mom a registered Democrat, but whenever they talked about politics it was usually not very party related. I have always been socially liberal, and still am. Fiscally I move around a little bit, and change my mind sometimes. To go back to my parents, my father during Bush, defected the Republican party and now refuses to vote for any Republican for president, does not matter who is running, and locally it would really have to be a horrible Democrat for him to go to the other side.

I’m more careful to actually have an opinion on matters now.

I switched from Republican to Independent/Democrat thanks to Nixon. Looking back, I would love to have men at least as sane as Nixon running today’s Republican Party.

Out of High School, I was a registered Republican, and considered myself a moderate. Nixon was falling, and the Republicans looked like they were going towards the John Lindsay middle. The Democrats were in the grip of the liberals, led by McGovern and Humphrey.
In 8 years, the Democrats moved towards the middle with Carter, and the Republicans moved to the right with Reagan. I campaigned heavily for a Republican turned Independant (John Anderson), and felt I had no connection with the Republicans. I changed to Democrat. I still consider myself to be a moderate.
So, to answer your question, I have remained fairly consistant as a moderate (though I have changed my mind on some issues, like immigration and gay rights), but changed parties when they changed their positions.

I haven’t switched my overall views, but I’ve switched my party alleigiance recently, because the party I’ve always voted for no longer represents me.

I grew up in a Republican house. I grew up thinking I was a Republican, and that Republicans are better. I grew up thinking “Liberal” was an insult.
It wasn’t even their platform. It was just that name. The idea of having a smaller government. That seemed like it was right.
I was damn near registering Republican when I registered to vote.

My beliefs on the hot-button issues such as war/defense, religion, abortion, etc. all sounded in my head to be Conservative ideas—e.g. I thought going to war was bad. And if we don’t have as much money going to war, we’d have less taxes, and the Republican platform was about having less taxes and smaller government, therefore I thought it was standard for Republicans to not want war. That’s how it reasons in my head. That’s why I thought I was Republican.

But over the years I realized that these stances were actually tied more to the Democrat party. I realized that the Republican party conflicted greatly with everything I stood for, and that it was directly tied with religion Christianity. And a lot of the stances the Republican party held contradicted other stances (e.g. being anti-abortion, they argue “Every life is sacred.” but strangely they are generally pro-war, and pro-gun, and I sure as hell have never met a Republican vegetarian). I realized I couldn’t ever be Republican.
I started calling myself Libertarian for a while. That reflected my beliefs a bit better. But then that got soiled by the Tea Party movement.
I will not yet call myself a Democrat. But I apparently am a Liberal.

So to answer the question asked in your title, “I have. Kind of.”

@cletrans2col All the mindless crap that persists to this day! Claiming Obama isn’t an American. He’s Islamic. He’s out to kill off the old people. Now there is supposedly something suspicious about the fact that he and Michelle both inactivated their law licenses. They’re suggesting it was for some shady wrong doing that nobody knows what it was. All of it. “Sarah Palin” about sums it up for me.

I have always registered Democrat, but in college and a couple years after I got economically conservative. That lasted until Reagan came into office, when I realized the Republicans aren’t fiscally conservative, they’re just greedy and pro rich.

I voted for Reagan in 1980, only vote I have ever regretted casting, only Republican I ever voted for.

Used to be Republican minded but eventually realized I really didn’t either the Republicans or Democrats and went independent.

Yes.

I went from ultra-religious captial-R Republican (because my church at the time told me I’d go to hell if I didn’t) to a touchy-feely Christian socialist (don’t remember how that happened) to vehemently anti-religious, conspiracy theorist neoliberal Democrat (spent way too much time on democraticunderground) to an atheistic Republican to William F. Buckley conservative, to old-school classical liberalism which I currently see myself as and I don’t see myself changing any time in the near future.

I guess if you think about it, my progression sort of makes sense… or not.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard You’ve become one of my favorite contributors to this site.

@cockswain, really? I’m flattered, because I’ve enjoyed a lot of your contributions as well.

Maximum brofist

That brofist is exactly what I’m talking about.

btw, this is funny

You may be surprised to know that I’ve actually seen something like that at my local Wal Mart.

have you seen peopleofwalmart.com? Here’s something else funny. Probably get modded, but I’m drinking and watching football. Don’t care.

edit: oh man, forgot you’re a mod. Sorry to put you in a spot. Do what you must, no worries.

@cockswain, hahahahahahhahahaha ohhhh godddd, that’s great. And I have seen people of wal mart.

@cockswain Football…they need to do away with the breast plates so the dudes can catch the ball!

you’re supposed to only catch the ball with your hands

But you can trap it against your body and wrap your arms around it. I saw the ball bounced off the hard plastic chest plates two different times in a way it wouldn’t bounce away from the body. But…I’m just kidding about doing away with them.

I was always a Dem until I got into my 40’s, then became self employed and when you become self employed the world automatically looks different and I went closer to the center. An epiphany happened and I realized Democrats and Republicans both suck, equally so i registered as an Independent. It’s good to be a king maker.

I’ve never been in a party, and I do not like the idea of political parties to begin with, so I have not switched allegiances in that sense. But I’ve certainly changed my views on certain issues, and I’ve changed my reasons for certain views that I’ve always held. Insofar as it is the reasons behind one’s political positions that determine whether you are liberal, conservative, or whatever, and not the positions themselves, this means I’ve switched my views. On balance, however, I’ve always been an eclectic moderate.

I’ve switched my political views more times than I can count. From extreme conservatism, to moderate left, to a brief bout with monarchistic rule, to the mandatory late teenage phase where “pure” anarchy made perfect sense to me.

I pride myself not on my political views but on my ability to alter them when presented with substantial valid evidence that indicates I should do so; frankly, I’m more interested in the journey by which views are reached than by the views themselves.

At the moment, I’d define myself as a libertarian centrist who edges very slightly to the left (mostly due to my opinions on healthcare).

I was raised in a deeply conservative household and actually wore a Nixon button to school during the election in which he lost to Kennedy. And this was in Massachusetts, mind you. But by the time I got to college I’d had a chance to see and think about things for myself. Life as a twenty-something in the era of the sixties finished the job. I’m pretty damned liberal now, but I am a registered Independent.

I was brainwashed as a kid when my teachers told us that Republicans want more money for people with higher paying jobs and Democrats want more money to spread out to keep lower paying jobs. And then I found out Congress votes every January on their own pay raise. Back around when Clinton first got elected, my mother would have lost her job if Bush got elected, so I guess you can say I believed I was Democratic, but after what the Democrats did to Obama, I don’t know anymore.

? What did the Democrats do to Obama @Moegitto? Obama is a Democrat.
How would your mother have lost her job if Bush was elected?
Your teacher was wrong to insert her own political leanings into her students.

@Dutchess_III Oh the teachers were very wrong. But it’s just a way of life. The democrats back out of most of Obamas plans that would benefit the lower public. Plus during the whole budget fiasco that was happening in april, Obama wanted the democrats to come to easy terms with the republicans to extend the budget and they refused without any reason. Then they tried saying that Obama wasn’t coming up with any good reasons for them to accept the deal. Back during (forgive me if I’m a little off, it was some time ago) the 1992/93 election race between Bush and Clinton, one of the reduction plans Bush came up with was to eliminate supplemental programs in the cities to reduce government spending. One of these programs was related to the teachers aide association. My mom was a teachers aide at that time and she would have been fired. She received the letter of government intention in the mail that explained all of the stuff involved.