What was the major factor in deciding your political inclination?

Republicans want my transgender son to pee with girls, even though he looks like a boy.
Republicans want to take all protections away from my child because their irrational religious fears come first.

I will vote against this.

If I can pick only one driving, deciding factor, for me it’s pretty clearly caring about the survival and well-being of non-human species. I almost always vote for the candidate who cares most about environmental issues.

Fortunately, that seems to almost entirely occur in candidates who also agree with me on other issues.

Reading books and articles.

I don’t think there was one single thing. I think that I would look at different events or topics and think about them, decide which side I felt was right and/or logical and would choose that. I started seeing that most of those were conservative in nature.

Compassion.

Prior to this point in time, I use past votes on issues and endorsements to decide. This time my vote may be decided on the less insane acting party.

Altruism, logic and reason.

Probably my upbringing at home. My parents both tended towards the left and I do too.

I like my independence. I don’t want government interference nor government help. I always vote for people that will lessen the government load on my life. That makes me conservative and proud of it.

A woman’s right to choose a safe, legal abortion.

I want a government that will provide good social safety nets for their citizens when they need it.
I want a Government that won’t be ruled by big business,or the ultra wealthy.
I want a Government that will respect women, and gay rights.
I want a Government that won’t allow corporations to pollute like crazy.
I want a Government that realizes THAT EVERYONE deserves affordable health care.
I want a Government that will ensure the wealthy pay their share of taxes.
I want a Government that realizes the environment needs to be looked after.
And last I want a Government that will make sure all workers receive at least a living wage.
While by all means not perfect the left has come far closer to delivering those items than the right ever has.

@SQUEEKY2 how’s that working north of the border?

A lot better than south of our border @seawulf575 .

I’ve read a lot of history and I’ve read a lot about those who were on the wrong side of history. I can sense that sometimes in the modern day (those who fight against same-sex marriage, but also those who stifle speech on college campuses). That puts me at odds with both of the two “sides”, of course. I also care deeply about the environment. I never used to until I started to see the effects of a damaged environment myself (whether human-caused or not). That made me realize that I can never vote for people who want to dam every river, cut down every tree, and frack the hell out of the mountainsides. I’m exaggerating, but there are people who put big business ahead of the environment, and I can’t vote for them.

I’m liberal when it comes to the environment and LGBT rights, conservative when it comes to immigration and free speech. I don’t have much of an easy choice and as the sides become more extreme and more divided, I find myself less and less interested in politics and hopeful that I’ll ever find a politician to rally behind enthusiastically.

@Demosthenes Welcome to the middle and being an Independent.

My upbringing and my values.

People over property and money. I am independent of party. I am for the more socialistic aspects of the Dems. I used to side with Reps on small gov and such but have been moving away rapidly as I see the obsession over money and their desire to claim corporate personhood and allow business to run roughshod over workers rights and safety and their removal of environmental protections in order to increase profits. I also disagree totally on their ideas on taxes. I am for a progressively higher tax on those with progressively higher incomes. I also believe wages and investment income should be taxed at the same rates.

So, basically their slide toward a corporatocracy, an American form of fascism where a business is the benevolent dictator and the economy is run solely to increase corporate profits and the expense of the workers has shifted my standing more and more away from them.

Unfortunately, the Dems are but the lesser of the two evils, not the cure against the corruption.