(When) Did Your Political Ideology Diverge From Your Parents'?

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Actually, I line up with my mom's side of the family fairly well.  Generally liberal Democrats, almost all women, many who work for the USPS.  I've been what you would call a liberal since I was 12 or 13.  Strongly pro-union, pro-choice, strongly for separation of Church and State, and generally pacifist.  Only times we butt heads are on certain social issues (reverse racism was a point of contention between us in 2008, as they were claiming black people all voting for Obama was somehow racist, not to mention that they were pro-Clinton and I was pro-Obama), and I'm somewhat more pro-business than they are.   They also seem to treat my coming out as an atheist as an example of my "quirkiness" and "a phase", which can be irritating, but not tremendously so.

Mom is a registered Democrat, one of those who works for the postal service, and we mostly agree except for the fact that I tend to think she forms outlandish opinions at times out of emotion.  Like when she claimed that businesses have been purposely tanking for over a year to get Romney elected.  I got almost angry when I had to explain to her how absurd that was.  

I would diverge from my dad, though.  We match up identically on social issues, we're both agnostic/atheist, and he despises the anti-science and pro-religion aspects of the GOP, but he's more of an economic conservative.  Feels that Republicans tend to be in the pockets of big business and that they provide more economic certainty than Democrats.  Also, he's a very successful accountant/asset manager and is inclined towards a moderate GOP because it helps his investments.  I generally agree with this sentiment, but I'm not driven by the virtue of increased profits like he is.  Perfect example, he is annoyed with the stagnation of business due to the uncertainty regarding Obamacare.  I agree, but I told him that making sure people are covered is far more important to me, not to mention a much more pressing matter, than a relatively marginal difference in profits that businesses are seeing due to this uncertainty.  It's tough when you tell your dad that I don't care if he takes a hit in his bank account, but we can't have people dying due to lack of healthcare coverage.  

As for the rest of my dad's side of the family?  Staunch Republicans, nearly all of them.  We don't agree on anything and viciously disagree to an extent.  I suspect a strong racist streak from them and I refuse to even engage at times because I get very heated.  

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

It never has. My family is full of RINOs. Deal with it, Atlas.

But I CAN'T deal with it!