I don't think my political views have changed very much, but I've gone from a straight-ticket Republican to a disaffected one, and certain issues that I didn't pay much attention to before (such as my support for America's trade deals, and TPP) are now of paramount importance.
Over the years, I would often say I was a Democrat at heart. There was truth to this; I was raised by a Democratic family, and I was the youngest Democratic committeeman in Suffolk County history, possibly even to this day. In those days, one could be a Democrat and something of a social conservative. Those days are gone; the Democratic Party is given over to the worst of social liberalism that is, in many ways, incompatible with the ethos of working class people.
Makes sense; we're very different people and come from very different places. I'm much younger, first of all, and I was raised by a Republican family and have generally been active in College Republicans and like organizations. I don't find social liberalism to be particularly important, but it's certainly not offensive to me and probably counts as a (very minor) reason to vote
for someone. Important issues to me are ensuring that our government is solvent and spends in a restrained manner and ensuring that America retains a powerful position in the world in support of liberal democracy (which is distinct from a hawkish position; I think the Clinton administration had a model foreign policy, and it was supported by many Republicans at the time). A large part of the Trump candidacy was built around downplaying the importance of both of these issues. I tend to think, generally, that the best-governed eras in recent (post-Cold War) American history were when there was a Democratic President and a Republican-controlled Congress; the Clinton/Gingrich and Obama/Boehner cohabitations.
I also think it's important to note that Hillary Clinton did in fact win working people; she backslid massively among the
white working class, but she did better with Hispanics, treaded water with African-Americans, and still won the working class overall.
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