How have your political views changed over the course of your life?

[Thunderbird is the word]

For me I was a dailykos style Democratic hack in high school. In 2007 though I grew disgusted with the party's willingness to vote for continued Iraq War funding and found myself looking for another ideology to attach myself to. For a very brief time I became a libertarian before falling in with a radical left crowd in college and becoming an Anarcho-Communist. Gradually I moderated to where I am now, a DSA style Socialist albeit with more of a libertarian stripe on personal freedom issues then most.

[DavidB.]

Good thread

When I was really young, I used to be a socialist, because my parents were - Labour are right-wing sellouts, etc. In high school, I became a VVD hack (and I supported Obama in 2008...), although I always felt slightly sympathetic toward the PVV as well (they were more moderate than now) because of their euroskepticism. I was really happy with the formation of the right-wing Rutte-I coalition with both VVD and PVV in 2010. By then, I had already become politically engaged, seeing Denmark as a shining example - especially regarding immigration - that the Netherlands should follow (which always continued to have a central place in my political thinking). I still know how euphoric I felt when these negotiations took place. By consequence of the collapse of that government in 2012, I lost all my hope in the political future of my country, and it never really returned. By that time, I had already become annoyed with the unprincipled VVD: I had shifted to the right in a libertarian way, being much more of an economic right-winger than I am nowadays. I had always been a progressive, but when I became more traditional and observant in my religion, I shifted toward some more conservative positions (e.g. regarding abortion) - which were also being underpinned by the libertarian notions of community, decentralization, importance of family structures etc. Nowadays, my social stances are somewhat idiosyncratic, due to the fact that I still don't see good/moral reasons to ban e.g. drugs, while being against drug use myself from a religious perspective. So these socially libertarian leanings continue to exist, whereas my views did change. More recently, I shifted somewhat to the left on economic issues (though still being an enormous right-winger), especially on healthcare issues. I think the government should provide basic healthcare for everybody - not because it's people's right, but because it is highly immoral to take a risk with human lives.

On foreign policy, I have always been 1000% pro-Israel (normal Jew), though my positions on the situation have shifted from a two-state based model to a one-state model. In high school, I used to be a typical European progressive America-skeptic (hue hue hue these crazy Republikanzzz!!!1! - reflecting the level of our media when reporting on the US...), but I quickly shook that off when in college, becoming fond of the land of the free and the home of the brave.

[Thunderbird is the word]

It's funny to me that your stance on healthcare alone would probably make you a Democrat if you lived in the US.

[DavidB.]

It's funny to me that your stance on healthcare alone would probably make you a Democrat if you lived in the US.

I don't really think so. I'm quite up to date when it comes to cleavages and positions in the US, and the Republican mainstream comes close to my stance on many, many issues... But it is certainly true that my positions on healthcare are more in line with those of some Democrats.

[Murica!]

0-7: To young
8-11: Christian(Catholic) Pacifist
11-13: Liberal with a bit of a Stalinist edge(I know that sounds hilarious, but I was 11.)
13-15: Social Democrat(called myself a democratic socialist if I remember correctly, lol.)
15-17: Actual Democratic Socialist
17-19: various forms of left wing Anarchism, though I hadn't fleshed out my ideology yet nor was I as radical now.
19-20: Started fleshing out my ideology, with about half of it visible here.
Now: Well you should know by now, but if you don't I'm an Anarcho-Syndicalist with bits of Libertarian Marxism and Utopian Communism mixed in for good measure.

[VPH]

0-10: Generic Democratic, anti-war, low info
10-13: Socially conservative, economically center left anti-war Democrat
13-16: Social Democrat, civil libertarian streak, strongly pacifist
16-: Economic Socially Democratic, moderate on social issues, pragmatic anti-war views

Issue shifts:
-Used to be anti-gay marriage and am now pro-equality
-Now more aware and supportive of gender equality issues
-Used to be strongly pro-life, shifted to strongly pro-choice, and now lean pro-choice but am near the middle
-Used to be super isolationist but now a wary-of-war internationalist
-Used to be anti-Patriot Act but now am supportive of it
-Used to be pro-death penalty and pro-physician assisted suicide, now oppose both

[Zioneer]

Back when I didn't really pay attention to politics, I was a standard Mormon conservative, then I started paying more attention to politics (and also my sister came out of the closet) and so I became more liberal. Each year I became more and more liberal, but as of the last 2.5 years I've become much more pragmatic as a progressive type, preferring electable candidates to "true progressive" candidates. My social views have become more progressive, while my economic views haven't really changed. Right now I'd consider myself similar to Elizabeth Warren economically, fairly progressive socially (especially on LGBT rights and criminal justice reform), and kind of wishy-washy on foreign policy (pro-intervention or anti-intervention depending on the news coming out, but otherwise pro-"soft power").

Basically, my main focus is elections, and so I'm deeply pragmatic in regards to winning them.

[PPT Spiral]

I used to be a generic socialist punk until I began to see through the logical fallacies that are the bedrock for many of the left's beliefs. I shifted towards libertarianism soon enough, occasionally flirting with the ancap side of it all, but experiences have led me to the conclusion that a pure libertarian society cannot exist and would not survive without a homogeneous and highly intelligent population, likely not surpassing meso-level numbers. So, I sympathize with what SJoyce said earlier in this thread. Cosmopolitanism is what I have drifted away from more than anything in recent times. As far as labels go? Who cares, Atlas obsesses over that way too much.

[Mercenary]

High-school: Non-Political but probably more sympathetic to Democrat party.
College: Standard conservative Republican. (I had no objection to the war and was very socially conservative)
Early post college: Ron Paul Republican (become anti-war and civil liberties became a bigger deal)
Now: While I support Rand Paul, I'd consider myself more of a hybrid of left and right that can make me look moderate at times and I do sometimes find moderate candidates more favorable, but I wouldn't really consider myself moderate.

I think the only issues I've never changed on is abortion (pro-life), environment (pro-environmentalism), and animal welfare (supportive of restrictions against the inhumane treatment of animals). Economic issues, foreign policy, and even a lot of social issues I've certainly changed over time on.

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

10 and younger, didn't even know what party Bush was, I knew that Britain had gun control and I thought that was wrong, but not much else.
11-12, Basically a Republican who opposed the War in Iraq.
12-13, Some ideology where I thought the government was the solution to everything.  I thought the Middle East should be divided between occupation zones run by the US, Israel, the UK, and one or two other countries.  Only time where I thought that abortion was legally or morally acceptable.
13-14, Fiscally centrist, socially conservative, moderate on foreign policy.  Started using the internet on a regular basis.
15-16, Move to the right on economics, began having libertarian leanings.
16-, Conservative Libertarian.

[Figueira]

I've flip-flopped on GMOs several times and moved a bit to the left on various things. That's about it.

[hopper]

My opinions have changed during the last 6 years of following politics:

1.) Was anti-gun control now for gun control
2.) Was Pro-Choice now Pro-Life
3.) Was for partial privatization of Social Security now against Partial-Privatization of Social Security
4.) Was for Civil Unions now for SSM.

[ElectionsGuy]

Basically as I have become more informed and knowledgeable about government and politics I have gone from conservative to 'conservatarian' to libertarian. I think by the end of 2013 I was nearly done with this transition, but I actually started out in mid-2013 with a blue avatar.

My views continue to develop, I've waffled over abortion, I was never really a social conservative but I've come to really value personal freedom and despise legislating morality. Foreign policy is where I've changed the most, from a moderate hawk to a Ron Paulite. On economics, I've become more conservative on taxes and the debt, but more moderate on the social safety net (though to be clear I was always conservative on these issues). That is not to say that I favor continuing the status quo with our welfare state, but I don't favor a complete hands off approach.

[H. Ross Peron]

0-7: Nonexistant
8-10: Vaguely liberal (mostly because I identified the Democrats with FDR and JFK)
11-13: Populist gradually moving in a right-wing direction-very strongly social conservative (especially on abortion) and hawkish foreign policy views but more statist and protectionist on economics (although I rarely put much thought into those issues)
14-15: Bog standard centre-right Establishment conservative/moderate neocon with some idiosyncratic views. Some of my social views actually became more libertarian, but I became strongly neoliberal on economics even though I was more willing to support a welfare state compared to most conservatives. Basically a Simfan34 clone.
16-17: "Obama Republican"/DLC Democrat-my actual views did not shift all that much initially but I ended up supporting the Democrats as a result of my deciding the ACA actually was a good idea after all. My cultural views remained relatively the same although I gradually became more left-wing (pro-welfare state) on socioeconomic issues.
17-: Social Democrat/New Deal Paleoliberal-My shift shifted enough that I became firmly ensconced in a New Deal liberal/social democratic framework. Since then my stances on certain issues have changed (supporting gay marriage and returning to my more protectionist roots for instance), but otherwise can basically be described as being strongly supportive of the welfare state and labour, pragmatic on social issues (generally adapt libertarian stances on issues like drugs, censorship etc. but support communitarian ends and strongly pro-life), and liberal internationalist on foreign policy. However, at the same time my emphasis and views on political tactics have been changing more rapidly recently-I've increasingly rejected elitism and hyper-intellectualism in political practice and thought in favour of more populist models and in particular gained an appreciation for demagouges. Similarly, I've disavowed most of my previous moralistic tendencies in politics in terms of rhetoric and day to day discussion in favour of appealing to interests. Also I've been rediscovering my old statist tendencies and examining certain corporatist models. 

[PJ]

Think I did this fairly recently, but I'll get into it again.

As soon as I became politically aware I became a partisan liberal democrat (although not necessarily left-wing) in the style of my parents. Gradually began to shift to the left as I began to formulate my own opinions (such as becoming pro-SSM and in favor of legal pot, which I wasn't in favor of before in spite of being a democrat, oddly enough) and became more socially libertarian, as opposed to the nanny statist Bloomberg-esque policies I used to embrace. Around this time I registered on Atlas and found a significant number of posters to my left (shocker!) which solidified some more moderate heroish attitudes I held. Once I decided I was wasting too much time on Atlas and left, I shifted to the left. I described myself as a Social Democrat, and viewed myself as a Bernie Sanders type Independent. The 2014 midterms lowered my opinion of the Democrats significantly, due to their terribly poor strategies and fetishization of the center, and the Greek financial crisis combined with some philosophical changes on socialism caused me to drop the Social Democrat label altogether. I also moved to an area chock full of elitist-minded liberals, which caused me to have a general distaste for a lot of aspects of American liberalism. By the time I started posting here again, I had pretty much embraced democratic socialism, although I guess some posters on here don't consider me to be one since I'm willing to lend critical support to democrats on occasion.

Misc. issues: went from pro-choice to pro-life, totally changed everything on drug policy, became more skeptical of gun control, more sympathetic towards open borders recently, ditched my cringeworthy opinion on Affirmative Action, went from pro to anti PATRIOT Act, used to be pacifist, now more of an internationalist with a dislike of imperialism, stopped being a GMO truther, once thought public option was the best healthcare system, etc.

[Intell]

0-10: Nothing
10-12: Authoritarian Left Wing, deeply social conservative but supported same sex marriage
12-14: Economically centrist/centerleft, support universal healthcare, education free tuition, stimulus yet supported the cutting down of the welfare state, more privatisation, opposed unions etc. Was a big civil libertarian and an internationalist, very libertarian on issues from guns to drugs, yet still opposed abortion.
14-21: Became more libertarian but still supported basic access to essential services, like mentioned above. Vehemently for free trade, electoral reform and devolution of powers to local government
21-26: Standard libreal atheist internationalist, libertarian having moral issues with abortion.
26-: Religious left, supporting a government intervention to stop people having the freedom to do danger/ hurt them self. See a government need in enforcing morality, as well as supporting more socialistic form of government, that provides free programs to it's citizens.

[TNF]

Prior to really 'getting into' politics at age 16, I held fairly standard 'populist' viewpoints. I was strongly influenced by the politics of my parents and grandparents (all of whom were and are Democrats) and my religion (Southern Baptist at the time). I didn't really think all that much about politics other than that I supported unions, opposed same-sex marriage and abortion, and was generally anti-war, having been turned off by the Iraq War as early as eighth grade.

After learning a little bit more, I decided that I was a Democrat. I dropped the opposition to same-sex marriage after a friend of mine came out and was a standard (if pro-life and pro-death penalty) liberal for a good amount of time. I came to support Ron Paul during the summer of 2007 (a combination of reading a lot about him on 4chan around that time) and (very briefly) considered myself a libertarian before having a US History course that shifted my views considerably toward the left again, having decided that the libertarian utopia of no child labor laws, the gold standard, and all that jazz really didn't work all that well in practice, and of course given my social background, I felt increasingly uncomfortable with the implications of the whole thing.

So I briefly became something of a 'left-libertarian', or progressive libertarian, or whatever. I supported Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich for President in 2008 before switching to John Edwards and then finally, Barack Obama. I projected a lot of what I personally felt onto Obama, and so I became fairly quickly disillusioned by him, but that didn't really set in until the massive Democratic losses in 2010. At that point, I jettisoned whatever 'progressive' politics I had in search of something that made more sense and that (I felt at the time) would better serve the needs of working people.

From that point on I would start describing myself as a social democrat, albeit what I considered to be an 'Old School' social democrat probably along the lines of General Mung Beans, although I was never opposed to abortion at any point after 2008 at the latest. That ideology stuck with me until the second Obama campaign, where I decided to back Obama as a 'lesser of two evils' and the contradictions inherent in that kind of tore it up from within. As I entered my last year of college, I was again seeking something different. In June 2013, I read Michael Harrington's Socialism: Past and Future, and got really interested in democratic socialism. His fairly even-handed presentation of Lenin also got me interested in Marxism, but in a somewhat limited fashion.

For about a year after that I did a lot of reading on socialism, trying to flesh out how I felt about this or that specific tendency. At first, I mostly identified with democratic socialism and then moved toward identifying more with libertarian socialism (although I've never self-identified and never will self-identify as an anarchist). Moving out on my own and getting (two, then three, and at one point four) jobs has hardened my opposition to the capitalist system and pushed me more fully in the direction of Leninism, as having been reduced to near constant toil has absolved in me any illusions that this system can (or should, for that matter) be reformed out of existence.

I read all the time, which helps me refine my positions and clarify where I stand. At present, I consider myself an orthodox Trotskyist, opposed to liberalism, reformist social democracy, and counterrevolutionary Stalinism and its twins, petty bourgeois anarchism and 'Third Camp' fake-Trotskyism.

[Leinad]

The funny thing about my evolution is that I was interested in politics from an analytical point of view before I started having my own opinions, so I spent time simply echoeing my parents' conservatism.

Ron Paul was certainly the gateway drug into libertarianism. At first it was "oh, Ron Paul, that guy's crazy..." then it was "hey, he's actually not crazy..." followed by "he's actually kind of right..." and lastly "he's definitely right!" to the point of now, where I make him look rather conservative.

Basically, ElectionsGuy's story is more or less mine, although I haven't gotten any less conservative on abortion, because I don't tie that to legislating biblical morality, but rather common sense. I've fortunately shaken off my anti-gay stance (I'm now pro-legalizing-polygamy), my anti-drug stance, and my pro-war stance, to where I'm one of the most anti-war people on the forum. Very far off from my Bush-defending days of low-information Republican hackism, which I nowadays try to pretend never happened.

Minimum government leads to maximum freedom, and this applies to more than just economics. That I now understand.

Also I now think Reagan was crap, while I used to have the default position of worshiping him like a diety as most members of the Republican Cult Party do.

[Blair]

I've been all around the ballpark

At the age of 13 or so when I first started paying attention to the News/Politics I was the generic 13 year old with a hint of British Nationalism who thought we should have the death penalty, that we should use are military a lot more and that we should basically be tougher because 'muh Britain is the best'. I remember supporting Hillary in 2008 purely because I'd heard of her, and everyone at school like Obama so I had to be alternative

Then when the Tories and liberals introduced tuition fees I realized that this was deeply unfair, and that well it really bad. That was the start of my transition leftwards into politics but it was a lot more single issue with me just being interested in politics and History rather than actually having a view on it. From that point I was always broadly supporting of Labour but never felt that connected to it. I remember wanting Obama to be re-elected in 2012 (Feels like a lifetime ago)

Then in 2012 I got Tony Blair's autobiography for my birthday which was when my intense political reading started, and I become a hardline Blairite which was honestly good for my political education. Basically the belief that the wrong Miliband Brother won in 2010 and that David was much better. Later in 2013 I remember moving towards Ed Miliaband when he came out with some smart stuff on Energy, and I was basically a Labour hack in British politics. It was probably from 2013 onwards when I started really obsessing over politics (It's my only serious hobby which terrifies me) I became and still am a Kennedy fanboy-I've read about 15 different book on the family and they're all gushing. It's honestly the only thing about my politics that's stayed the same

Then in 2014 I went to see Ed Miliband do a speech about media in the UK, and how he wasn't the leader from central casting-that really warmed me to him. Likewise I drifted quite far left after reading William Blum's Death by Democracy , which made me think that basically everything America and Britain has done since 1945 has been evil. Combined with going to some far left groups like TUSC and reading Socialist worker that was as far left as I got but I realized how stupid the majority of it is. Continued until the 2015 election telling everyone how good Miliband would be as Prime Minister, and how he would fix all the inequality in Britain. Worked my butt off for the 2015 election only to be absolutely crushed by the scale of defeat after Labour had imo a very good campaign.

After the election lose I supported Chukka Umanna as the next leader but he dropped out so I went for Andy Burnham, he'd always been touted as a future leader and I honestly thought of him as a pretty Ed Miliband. I flirted with voting with Liz Kendall very early on until she came out with her crap about Israel, free schools etc. I expect the next year of my political fun will be dominated by uni politics and telling everyone that Jeremy Corbyn is awful. The one thing I like to boost about is always supporting mainstream candidates despite probably being more left wing- Clinton 2008, D Miliband 2010, Miliband in 2015, Clinton in 2016

TL;DR

2010- Right wing nationalist hack
2011- History nerd who thought they were all crap
2012- Moved towards Labour, and the democrats after actually reading more
2013- Blairite hack, Clinton democrat
2014- Shift left, anti-American and socialist phase
2015- Moved back to Centre left

[afleitch]

I’m from a Labour family and started to get interested in politics back in 1996. I was Blairite/Labour until the Iraq War (which I supported) but was very anti-Bush. I then drifted towards the Conservatives under Howard and then joined the party. I remained active in Conservative politics from 2004-2011, though from a pragmatic point of view I voted SNP at Holyrood. Since then I became somewhat apolitical, but pro-independence. I now vote for (though not necessarily support, if that makes sense) the SNP. Like many Scots, politics has shifted to a Nationalist-Unionist spectrum and I am a Nationalist. Who governs the rest of the UK is less important to me, though I nominally prefer the Conservatives over Labour because Labour are sh-te.

I’ve always from a British perspective been centrist. When times are good I rest on the centre-right, when times are bad more to the centre-left.

[SATW]

0-9: None, because I was a kid
10-12: Moderate Hero Democrat/Independent
12-13: Rockefeller Republican Hack
13-15: Socially Far-right, Economically Centrist Republican
16-18: Tea Party Republican (economically conservative, socially center-right)
18-Current: Establishment Republican, for the most part

[/]

Back a few years ago when I was seven, the only two issues that I knew about were gay marriage and global warming. I was pro-gay marriage, of course, but I considered myself to be a 'conservative' because I supported environmental conservation.

[SWE]

0-7: None
8-9: Republican party hack. This was around the 2008 election, and I was really enthusiastic about McCain.
10-11: After the election ended I lost interest in politics.
12-14: This was around the house 2012 election, and I supported Obama, mostly because he supported gay marriage, but as I read more about his platform, the more I found I agreed with. Over time I became increasingly liberal, and started to oppose Obama from the left.
14-16: I started to become curious about socialism, and started reading about it. I began to identify as a democratic socialist, and started becoming more and more radical. Eventually I started to identify as an anarchist, but eventually moved in a more Leninist direction. Recently, I've started moving away from Leninism again. At this point I'd probably consider myself a Luxemburgist.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I'm far less statist than I was when I was of the age most Atlas posters are. Looking back I was a weird mix of non-racist fascist and non-classist socialist, tho I wouldn't have called myself that then. I still feel strongly the obligations we individuals have towards the whole, I've just grown skeptical about the ability of the state to ensure we meet those obligations.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

I came out of the womb singing The Red Flag