Your Parents' Political Views

[progressive85]

Let's share what our parents views were/are and then ours and see how they compare.

My mother was pro-life and argued with her pro-choice teacher in class one day.  In 1980 she wore an ABC button - Anybody But Carter.  She believed in evolution, but was also a woman of religious faith.  She voted for Bill Clinton in the 90s, but did not like Hillary - she thought she was not a true New Yorker.

My father voted for Carter in 1980, then voted for Reagan in 1984.  He is pro-choice and has a mix of liberal and conservative views.  He's an independent and distrusts politicians.  He's made friends with several Republican state legislators.  He voted for Kerry in 2004 (he did not like the Bushes) and he voted for McCain in 2008 (he thought Obama would just choose blacks for all the top jobs).  He watched Fox News in the Obama years.  He thought Hillary was an evil bitch, voted for Trump even though he thought he was a clown, and now says that Trump may be a more serious threat to the nation than some of the foreign dictators are.

My stepfather was a self-proclaimed "Southern sympathizer" and knew a lot about Civil War history.  He may have been Republican or an independent.  He had a gay friend that died of AIDS but also told gay jokes.  He mentioned New Jersey Governor Christie Todd Whitman once as a potential first woman president.

My stepmother comes from a traditional conservative Catholic family and generally leans to the Republicans.  She does not care for liberal Democrats and calls Nancy Pelosi a loser.  She is the closest to the national mood - often swinging against Republicans when they are in power.  She didn't like Clinton or Trump and despite not being a feminist, she does not approve of Trump's behavior towards women.

I am pro-life (like my mother) and I strongly support science and I believe in evolution.  I voted for the first time in 2004 for John Kerry even though I didn't care for him.  My vote was against Bush and the Republicans for the antigay marriage amendment.  I supported Hillary in 2008 and 2016.  I thought Obama was a little overrated and overhyped, but I think he's a very dignified man and I liked that he lit up the White House in rainbow colors.  I was not opposed to the War on Terror - or toppling Saddam Hussein in Iraq.  I am an interventionist for human rights -- a liberal worldview based on freeing people from tyranny and oppression.  I tend to think of politics in a moral way - I favor populist economic policies to distribute wealth downwards instead of upwards, but do not favor too much government control or state ownership of industry.  I considered myself a moderate for a long time before embracing the word "liberal" after no longer being afraid of it.

[Peanut]

My father and my mother have very contrasting views, that are quite interesting. I probably took the most liberal side from both of them.

My father is your average working-classish guy. He strongly believes in a government that helps citizens (supports some pretty darn leftist economic policies) and is quite socially conservative too. He would never consider voting for a Republican, though.

My mother is your average latte liberal. A rather strong proponent of the cause du jour, her policies are libertarian with a progressive streak. She's squarely in the middle of the Democrats on social issues but probably to their right on economic issues (the other way around from my dad.)

[Deleted User #4049]

My dad is a true moderate, slightly leaning towards the Dems. He voted Bush, Kerry, Obama, Romney, Clinton. My mom is a former moderate turned #resistance liberal; she voted Gore, Kerry, Obama, Romney, Clinton.

[Big Abraham]

Both my parents are something between liberal Republicans and moderate Democrats, typical upper middle-class suburban Romney–Clinton voters

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

My mother has been an activist progressive of various stripes for more or less her whole life. She cut her political teeth following Watergate as it went down when she was a teenager and has been a reliable partisan Democrat since then with the exception of a flirtation with Nader in 2000 (the first election I have any memory of). She's a staunch old-school left-liberal across all or almost all issue areas, strongly feminist in a way that probably hasn't changed much since the seventies (apparently she had a big fight about abortion with my socially conservative Catholic grandmother once), and tends to support women over men in intra-Democratic politics regardless of precise ideology (Hillary over Bernie, Pelosi over her discontents, AOC over her establishment critics). She's spent most of her life in the nonprofit sector, mostly working on consumer, environmental, childcare, and veterans' issues. I'm a single-parent child so she was my sole parental frame of reference as a kid.

I'm left-to-far-left on issues of production, distribution, and exchange, as well as on immigration and the environment, but more idiosyncratic on culture war issues; I'm strongly pro-life but deeply dislike the political and activist leaders of the pro-life movement, have a personal investment in LGBT issues for reasons I don't care to dissect in detail, lean libertarian on drugs, and intensely dislike the whole atmosphere of gun politics in this country. I'm pretty conservative in my personal habits but try not to politicize them.

My mom and I are both kind of unsystematic and ad-hoc on foreign and trade policy.

I love and respect my mom very deeply and take her views into strong account even when I disagree with them.

[darklordoftech]

Mom: Strongly pro-choice, anti-war, environmentalist, pro-Obamacare, and anti-death-penalty. She is a lifelong Democrat to the point that she voted for Carter in 1980 (the first election in which she could vote), Mondale in 1984, and Dukakis in 1988.

Dad: Also anti-war, pro-Obamacare, and a lifelong Democrat. He voted for Carter in 1976 (the first election in which he could vote), Anderson in 1980, Mondale in 1984, and has never looked back since.

[Free Bird]

Mom: Culturally conservative but tolerant of gay people, economically moderate (hardliner on immigration and social spending, pro-trade, anti-taxes, open to the idea of universal healthcare). Genuinely independent (not just a partisan in disguise), which I commend her for. Thinks Trump needs to stop making an ass of himself but voted for him in order to vote against Hillary. Has a genuinely independent dad and fairly liberal but not hackish mom who, despite mostly voting Democrat (I wanna say she voted, with Humphrey as her first election, for Ford, Reagan both times and maybe 41 the first time but that's it), remains unaffiliated.

Her Votes: Bush, Abstain, Dole I think but Clinton wouldn't shock me, Implied Gore, Bush, Obama, Romney, Trump

Dad: Culturally conservative (loves guns), your classic Northern Maine populist economics-wise in that he's pro-tariff/anti-immigration but also pro flat tax despite my best efforts, as well as anti-regulation and generally distrustful of government, all impressively while avoiding becoming a conspiracy theorist about it like my uncle (his older brother). He often says that he would be a "JFK Style" Democrat if this were the 1960s just like his own dad was his whole life (his mom recently changed parties to vote for Trump). Voted Johnson because we both then knew voting Republican for President in Connecticut to be pointless; better to help the LP try and get to 5%.

His Votes: Reagan, Bush, Perot, Perot, Bush, Bush, McCain, Romney, Johnson

[OSR stands with Israel]

My Dad: Pretty similar to mine except I would say hes slightly to the left on Tax policy , more protectionist, not as in favor of American Interventionism, and slightly more culturally conservative.

My Mom: Center Left on Education and Healthcare . On immigration depends on what exact policy position you are talking about.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Mom: Green/Left supporter. Pretty similar to me in most cases, albeit slightly more leftist on ecomonomic issues and slightly more conservative on "social" issues... both of which actually leads her to tilt more towards the Left Party than I do due to the presence of Sarah Wagenknecht etc.

Dad: Often seems pretty vague on his political views, despite the fact he's certainly not shy to be outspoken on non-political topics. Would generally desribe him as sort of centrist-to-moderately conservative. FDP seems to be his favorite party, although he mostly abstained from voting during the era of the Westerwelle and Rösler chairmanships (2001-2013). His opinion of the FDP improved since Lindner took over.

[VPH]

Dad: Generally left-leaning but not left-wing. Pretty moderate on economics and generally liberal on social issues.

Mom: Left-wing on economics and most social issues, while being pro-life.

[Politician]

Mom: Moderate turned #resistance liberal. Voted McCain-Obama-Clinton.

Dad: Libertarian-leaning, moderate independent. Voted Obama-Johnson-Johnson.

[Sirius_]

Mom: Mainstream moderate liberal democrat. Will support democrats most of the time but despises Bernie Sanders and generally doesn't like the progressive wing of the party. She believes that most major changes should be done gradually. Voted Obama-Obama-Clinton, leaning towards Biden 2020.
Dad: Generally prefers to remain apolitical but from what I can tell he's kind of libertarian ish. He generally takes fiscally conservative positions, I think he supports LGBT, supports campaign finance reform, and is very distrusting of all politicians. That's all I know about him. Didn't vote in the last 3 presidential elections.

[afleitch]

My parents are Labour voters who vote for the Labour party they have created in their heads. They are also of an ilk that probably secretly like the Tories, pair buying the Daily Record with the Daily Mail and like dubious Facebook content. They've shifted rightwards while I've shifted leftwards.

[HillGoose]

My father was basically a Cheney/Rumsfeld neocon (like myself) from about 1990 until 2016, now he's a hybrid MAGA Trumpist/neocon, despite being a Cruz supporter and #NeverTrump during the 2016 primary, but became a Trump supporter before the general. I guess basically like John Bolton or Lindsey Graham. He's voted straight ticket R in every election since at least 1992, and to this day he'll tell you that Ross Perot was a Democrat plant to steal that election from George HW Bush.

My mother, well I don't really know how to define her. To be honest I don't know her super well and don't really have a desire to. She was basically like my father politically (except more liberal on LGBT rights) when she was around when I was a kid, but from the things I've heard her say the few times I've been around her in the past few years, she's basically a NeverTrump Republican, and I in 2016 she either voted for Gary Johnson or wrote in Evan McMullin, but I can't exactly remember.

[Illiniwek]

My parents are quite liberal after growing up in pretty standard GOP households. The one point of difference is that I believe my mom leans pro-life, but that is far from her first concern. My dad is very pro-choice.

[Huey Long is a Republican]

My mother voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004 and constantly talks about him 'getting a mission accomplished'. As you can tell, I really disagree with that and me and her have gotten into a few argument about Bush every now and then. She did support Perot in College, I think.

[Former President tack50]

Mum: All over the place. She has voted for pretty much every party in existance I think. I'd say she leans to the right overall (both on economics and social issues), but is extremely inconsistent in her beliefs.

Dad: Pretty much the opposite. He is an extremely consistent centre-left voter. He seems lightly more left wing on economics than social issues, but not by much.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Well i have a complicated family situation. I was raised in a lesbian foster family, because my mom abused me, and my dad couldn't take care of myself because of depression and alcohol problems, but i'll do them all four.

Foster Mom: I see her as a one nation conservative. I think her views shifted more to the right over recent years. She was usually a loyal Christian Democrat (CD&V) voter, but I believe that she will this year vote for the more right-wing nationalist party (N-VA). She reminds me a bit of Atlas user LeChasseur to be honest. I can have interesting political discussions with her, and i like talking about politics with her, even though views are quite different, but we have a lot of common agreements as well. She was a Hillary supporter (she is LGBTQ / woman) in the past. We even have books of her here. And both me and her hoped she would ever get president, but we both preferred Sanders in 2016, and than she shifted towards supporting Trump over Clinton. How political views can change over time... Locally, she still votes christian democrat, but on national level, she'll support the more right-wing N-VA.

Other foster mom: She's less politically interested. I don't talk with her about politics, but she has voted for both Green and Christian Democrats in the past. I think she has center-left views, but usually votes for certain persons on local elections as well. I'm less able to read her political views though, but she would likely have voted for Clinton if she was American.

My Dad: Our views differ a lot as well. He even posted on one post i made on Facebook that i should instead protest in Africa for a better climate, in some sentences i can barely read (they were so badly written, i mean my sentences in english are much better than his in his native language). I think he dramatically shifted to the right as well, because they've voted center-right liberal in the past, and now vote for the far-right Flemish Interest and they would vote for Trump in America too. The last time i was there, they couldn't stop talking about immigrants and were asking how much trans migrants in my region bothered me, and i've honestly never seen them yet. But it proves that immigration is a real issue in our country and globally. So, they're definitely right-wing populist and vote far-right currently.

My Mom: We haven't talked in a decade probably, and we've blocked each other on Facebook, but she was definitely a far-right supporter and has shared tons of racist stuff on her FB wall (mostly from Pegida). She definitely prefers populist, anti-establishment candidates, preferrably economically left-wing and socially conservative.

[ABTars2000]

My dad's voting record:
1988: Dukakis
1992: Ross Perot
1996: Bob Dole
2000: Bill Bradley in the Democratic Primary, George W. Bush in the General Election.
2004: George W. Bush
2008: Barack Obama
2012: Jon Huntsman in the Republican Primary, Barack Obama in the General Election.
2016: John Kasich in the Republican Primary, Hillary Clinton in the General Election.

My mom's voting record:
1988: George H.W. Bush Primary and General Election
1992: George H.W. Bush Primary and General Election
1996: Bob Dole Primary and General Election
2000: George W. Bush in Primary and General Election
2004: George W. Bush
2008: John McCain in Primary and General Election
2012: Rick Santorum in Primary and Mitt Romney in General Election
2016: John Kasich in Primary and Donald Trump in the General Election

[President Johnson]

My Dad is a very political person and left of center and votes for Social Democrats. On economic policy, he's more of a third wayer and similar to me. Even though a Greek immigrant, he's strongly opposed to large immigration from Muslim countries and has a critical view of Islam (and religion in general). However, he despises nationalism, especially from Greeks (but thinks Germans should be more patriotic). He's very critical of American foreign policy and says he's a pacifist. The first is often a source of controversial discussions between us, as he isn't a huge fan of the US in general (but claims to have nothing against the American people). He frequently slams Donald Trump as "the biggest joke of a president ever" and Obama as "the so-called Nobel Prize winner".  

My mother always votes for Social Democrats, but is not that politically. She's also opposed to immigration from Muslim countries (has nothing to do with my dad as my parents are seperated for 22 years and haven't talked to each other for a decade). I remember that at the time she applauded Dubya's invasion of Iraq, though.

[Mr. Smith]

Me Dad is pretty much a generically liberal Democrat. He's a bit more skeptical about government spending though and deficits. Voted for McGovern in '72 and never looked back.

Me Mum was a bit socially conservative, for religious reasons, but otherwise very apolitical. She was raised in a traditional Mormon household, with parents that emigrated when Pat Brown was the only statewide Democrat and Knowland/Nixon/Knight were dueling for supremacy, so I reckon she probably voted Republican early on, but she wasn't a fan of Bush Jr.  I don't know much, never really asked, and now, she can't even draw a clock.

[RINO Tom]

Dad: Very conservative Republican on practice, if not ideology.  In other words, he's the type of person who'd say "in our system, it makes more sense to vote for a Republican I hate than a Democrat I like."  His PM score would probably be a lot less extreme than his voting record.  Grew up in a Republican family with a small business owner as a father.

Mom: Fairly conservative Republican who has grown much more conservative over the past ten years or so.  Not very ideological, but her career in academia has really given her a distaste for your SJW types, and this has really caused her to shift right more in bitterness than in actual viewpoints in the last decade.  For example, she still supports race-based affirmative action and other positions most likely supported by these types, but she absolutely can't stand them nonetheless and identifies with the GOP as probably a lot more "normal" than many here due to spending every day working with academics.  Grew up in a poor family of Catholics who were mostly Democrats but who have come around to being Republicans in their 40s and 50s.  Only one in her family (who is a live) to still be a Democrat is her mother, but she voted for Trump.

[darklordoftech]

My dad's voting record:
1988: Dukakis
1992: Ross Perot
1996: Bob Dole
2000: Bill Bradley in the Democratic Primary, George W. Bush in the General Election.
2004: George W. Bush
2008: Barack Obama
2012: Jon Huntsman in the Republican Primary, Barack Obama in the General Election.
2016: John Kasich in the Republican Primary, Hillary Clinton in the General Election.

How did your dad get from Dukakis to Dole to Bradley to Dubya to Obama?

[fhtagn]

My mom is a hardcore Democrat and voted as such in every election except for 2004. Huge feminist and takes part in a lot of events for feminist causes, even took me along to see the RBG documentary that came out over the summer. She's also in favor of things like open borders, single payer healthcare, universal basic income, and free college for all. She's warmed up to LGBT issues, however she did not support gay marriage until it was popular. She also doesn't have hardcore views on guns, since she grew up in rural/remote areas of Alaska.

My dad is a stereotypical Puerto Rican voter. He doesn't talk politics too much but I know he definitely votes for Democrats (he's pretty open about who he votes for). Like many Hispanics however, he grew up in a very religious background (he is Catholic, most of his family is Pentecostal or Jehovah's Witness) so he is socially very conservative.

[DC Al Fine]

Dad: Garden variety movement conservative
Mom: More or less this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Union_(Netherlands)