Have you become more liberal or conservative over time?

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Definitely more conservative, but since we're starting at being a raging liberal as soon as just 4 years ago, this means to the center

[retromike22]

I've become more economically liberal, but more socially conservative.

[JerryArkansas]

I've swung far to the left, to being a centrist who could be in ether party.  That tells you how far right I was when I first joined the forum.  I made hosts of Fox News look like members of MSNBC.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

I've become a socialist, so neither.

[SWE]

I've become a socialist, so neither.

[RFayette]

Definitely more conservative, but since we're starting at being a raging liberal as soon as just 4 years ago, this means to the center

Could it be that your new ideology only applies to US politics?  I don't know too many Romney-Tsipras supporters

[OSR stands with Israel]

Since the following politics(10th grade) more liberal

Thorught 10th grade: I was conservative on nearly every issues, and was probably nearly as right wing as the tea party

11th grade: I took a left turn on most social issues and crime issues

12th grade: I became more pragmatic on foreign policy

[ElectionsGuy]

More libertarian.

[Maxwell]

I've been fluctuating heavily, but I guess overall to the left.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

More libertarian.

Huh, I've thought you have become less libertarian and more conservative over time.

[ElectionsGuy]

More libertarian.

Huh, I've thought you have become less libertarian and more conservative over time.

Oh no, just the opposite.

[TDAS04]

I've always been pretty liberal socially, with maybe a couple exceptions.  Fiscal issues are where I've changed the most.  I was a fiscal conservative in high school, now I'm center-left on economic issues.

[TNF]

I've swung more to the left with every passing year that I have been politically active. This time last year I'd have described myself as a libertarian socialist-leaning democratic socialist, and today I'd pretty much describe my politics within the confines of orthodox Trotskyism. So, on the whole, I've been jettisoning a lot of leftover liberalism from when I was younger. It's kind of funny to look at my ideological progression -

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I fluctuated a lot until high school, when my views became steadily more conservative on both social and economic issues.  Since the rise of the Tea Party movement, however, my views would probably be considered more "moderate" because I am more of a pragmatist than they are.  I've come to despise the extreme stances they take, even if I agree with them more often than not.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I have always been rather conservative. I did become more conservative on abortion and more for free trade in the mid 2000s. In the last six years, I have become more libertarian on a range of non-abortion related social issues like drugs and prisons, as well as on foreign policy.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

More pragmatic.

[Mr. Smith]

More pragmatic.

This is closer to the truth, but given how crazy left I used to be...there really was nowhere to go but rightwards.

[checkers]

In high school I pretty much had the politics of everyone else around me, which was a kind of Moderate Hero, Daily Show-esque, "why can't they all be reasonable" inanity. I probably would have described myself as "economically centrist, socially liberal". As an undergrad I became a bit of a SJW, with a particular interest in feminism, but after a while I found that unsatisfactory and moved economically to the left, to the point where I was pretty much a Marxist. Since then, I've moved slightly back towards the centre - or at least, become much more pragmatic.

[Tender Branson]

More centrist. From being left-wing.

[Rockefeller GOP]

I've always been pretty socially liberal (with the exception of gun control, which no one - regardless of party - really supports up here), but maybe I've gotten a tad more liberal over the years?  I've definitely gotten more fiscally conservative as I've made more money but also had to start planning a family, buying a new house, been promoted and seen it from the other side, etc.

[IceSpear]

More conservative. In my teens I was a True Leftist. Thank god I didn't have a Forum account then...

[Mercenary]

When I first entered political awareness when I was about 18 years old, I was probably semi-moderate but became increasingly conservative over time to where I reached extreme tea-party style right wing in college. Since then I have definitely drifted left, not on all issues though. Now, rather than being say lean right or lean left, I am more a collection of typically far left and far right positions with just a few moderate ones.

I guess that is how my top two candidates I support tend to represent the extremes of their parties (Sanders and Paul).

[anvi]

On an American scale, more liberal I guess.

[Mechaman]

To paraphrase a quote here:

"Paying taxes made me a libertarian.  Getting laid off made me a leftist."

[WVdemocrat]

When I first became interested in politics a few years ago, I was a crazy libertarian. Like Ron Paul libertarian. It was awful. I know, you don't have to tell me.

Now, I have drifted much, much further to the left on economic issues (from being very libertarian on them), but I've always been consistently liberal on social issues. However, there was a period where I tried to convince myself that being a moderate is good ("It means you're open-minded!" "Be the moderate hero!"). I'm so glad I got over that.

Lately, after seeing how little really gets done in politics and how the establishment wing of the Democratic Party always hijacks it and forces the party to the right, I've become a little cynical regarding the American political system. I really just want a president who will radically change things, make America a little more like Canada, or more like Europe. The Democratic Party is ahead right now. We have a chance to show America how good liberalism can be. But we are about to nominate someone who, when liberalism is ahead, is going to govern as a moderate. Someone who cozies up to corporate interests and isn't interested in radical change. It's really depressing seeing very few people in the race who actually want to change America, rather than just get elected, and then get re-elected.

And yes, this happened over the course of a few years. I'm a teen, my political ideology changes drastically over a year. But, I think I've reached a stability. I know more about politics now than I've ever known before, and my positions are mine. I no longer have Ron Paul () or Jon Stewart weighing on me. I've reached a point of political awareness where it'd be very difficult to change my position on most issues.