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Have you ever changed political affiliation?

Have you ever changed political affiliation? Why, when?

  • Yes, I have switched

    Votes: 23 60.5%

  • No, I have not switched.

    Votes: 6 15.8%

  • No, I would never switch.

    Votes: 1 2.6%

  • I vote for the best candidate.

    Votes: 8 21.1%
  • Total voters
    38
Up to my mid-twenties I generally gravitated towards Liberalism. Having then recognised that no prevailing or extant ideology sufficed to adequately address social phenomena, I began developing my own perspective. To that end, I now reject the established polarity. So it's not that I crossed the aisle, so to speak, but that I was exiled by necessity.
 
Yes....when I was young and inexperienced and new to voting I was staunchly Republican. I was a product of the early 1980's and a big Reagan fan during his first term. As I got a few years older and wiser I soon realized the error of my ways. I am now pretty hard-core Democrat and have been for about 25-28 years.....more or less. I chalk voting for Ronald Reagan up to one of the biggest mistakes I ever made.
 
OnWisconsin said:
Just trying to get an idea of how much peoples political affiliation really changes throughout their life. Please give an explanation as to why, and perhaps when you decided to change sides.
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I was a staunch Republican for a long time. Till about ol' George W. Bush, then I left the Republocrats all together. I vote mostly Libertarian because I am most in line with their political ideology, but I'll vote for who I believe is the best candidate and best echos my own political platform.
 
OnWisconsin said:
Just trying to get an idea of how much peoples political affiliation really changes throughout their life. Please give an explanation as to why, and perhaps when you decided to change sides.
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My parents and grandparents were Republicans. I always considered myself a Republican. When I got out of the military I started to get involved in politics. I registered as a Republican. What surprised me was that we had 5 county commissioners serving our county. One was a democrat. The other 4 were Republicans. This was 2002-2003ish. Many people in our area said that the best Republican on our board was a democrat. I agreed. He was the only one to vote against every tax increase opportunity that he had. I thought that man needed an ally. I registered as a Democrat with the intention of running for county commissioner in 2004. I didn't run that year but I remained a registered Democrat. Guess what? That guy lost as a democrat. Fast forward a few years. Someone resigns in the middle of the term. The 4 remaining commissioners had to appoint someone to the empty seat. The deal was that if he would be a Republican then they would appoint him for the remainder of the term. He did it. My party affiliation as a democrat no longer had any strategic value. In 2008 Rush Limbaugh instituted "Operation Chaos". He was encouraging Republicans to register as Democrats to vote for Hillary. I was already a Democrat and was thrilled to participate in Operation Chaos. I even showed up at a Hillary Clinton rally and seen Bill Clinton in person.

Anyways. As soon as the 2008 primary was over I registered as a Republican and I'm not changing it ever again no matter what happens in the Republican Party.
 
Wow, thanks for the responses.. I am seeing quite the trend here though. I am not sure if this is reflective of most voters or simply just a reflection of those on DP, but either way it is very interesting.
 
Yes I have changed my political beliefs. I grew up in a fairly liberal family. Not my parents so to speak, but the rest of my family. I watched as a child while they sat around year after year waiting on Aid checks & food stamps or SSI checks. All in the name of securing a job doing nothing. They actually believed the government owed them this. None of them ever held a steady job or lived in one place for very long. When they did have a job they showed up late or not at all. Three out of 6 of my uncles are drunks and drug addicts. Only one of my aunts work to this day. Their kids have now grown up to work the system the same way there parents did. With the exception of only one. I have one cousin out of 12 that has had a steady job, supported his family and owns his own house. The rest have bounced back and forth between section 8 and gov housing.

They all based their vote off of who promised to do the most for them not for the country. My parents never really supported any party. They tried to vote for who they thought would be the best candidate and I don't fault them for that. With my Dad working 60 + hours a week it was tough for him to keep up with all of it. He did try though. I have two sisters one votes Democrat. She has 4 kids by three different guys, none have anything to do with the kids. She is in housing, gets aid, and sits at home playing video games and smoking pot. My other sister is in business with me as well as works on the side as a consultant. She does well for herself considering she was married twice and is now single living on her own.

Out of my entire family my sister and I are the only vocal Conservatives. I am not sure if we ended up this way due to disgust or from just wanting a change in the family. We both knew early on that wasn't the lifestyle we wanted to live. I am pretty sure my parents didn't want it either but it was a bigger hole for them to climb from being they were the first to do it.

Anyway my change was from no affiliation to conservative. By the way so far I haven't seen any candidates for the last several cycles I would consider conservative.
 
Dirt Racer said:
Yes I have changed my political beliefs. I grew up in a fairly liberal family. Not my parents so to speak, but the rest of my family. I watched as a child while they sat around year after year waiting on Aid checks & food stamps or SSI checks. All in the name of securing a job doing nothing. They actually believed the government owed them this. None of them ever held a steady job or lived in one place for very long. When they did have a job they showed up late or not at all. Three out of 6 of my uncles are drunks and drug addicts. Only one of my aunts work to this day. Their kids have now grown up to work the system the same way there parents did. With the exception of only one. I have one cousin out of 12 that has had a steady job, supported his family and owns his own house. The rest have bounced back and forth between section 8 and gov housing.

They all based their vote off of who promised to do the most for them not for the country. My parents never really supported any party. They tried to vote for who they thought would be the best candidate and I don't fault them for that. With my Dad working 60 + hours a week it was tough for him to keep up with all of it. He did try though. I have two sisters one votes Democrat. She has 4 kids by three different guys, none have anything to do with the kids. She is in housing, gets aid, and sits at home playing video games and smoking pot. My other sister is in business with me as well as works on the side as a consultant. She does well for herself considering she was married twice and is now single living on her own.

Out of my entire family my sister and I are the only vocal Conservatives. I am not sure if we ended up this way due to disgust or from just wanting a change in the family. We both knew early on that wasn't the lifestyle we wanted to live. I am pretty sure my parents didn't want it either but it was a bigger hole for them to climb from being they were the first to do it.

Anyway my change was from no affiliation to conservative. By the way so far I haven't seen any candidates for the last several cycles I would consider conservative.
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Sorry to hear that. I certainly don't agree with getting a free ride to just sit and do nothing. I do understand that there are situations where the social safety nets (welfare, food stamps) have helped some people get on their feet. My mother being one of them. Having me at 17 years old was a mistake, and put her at a great disadvantage just as her life was getting started. She was on welfare/foodstamps but she didn't let it be an excuse to not better her life. Because of these she was able to get on her feet and now is doing quite well for herself.

I don't think that being a democrat means that you support people being lazy. While I'm sure some do. I do think that the way democrats and republicans view "a helping hand" is completely different though.
 
OnWisconsin said:
Sorry to hear that. I certainly don't agree with getting a free ride to just sit and do nothing. I do understand that there are situations where the social safety nets (welfare, food stamps) have helped some people get on their feet. My mother being one of them. Having me at 17 years old was a mistake, and put her at a great disadvantage just as her life was getting started. She was on welfare/foodstamps but she didn't let it be an excuse to not better her life. Because of these she was able to get on her feet and now is doing quite well for herself.

I don't think that being a democrat means that you support people being lazy. While I'm sure some do. I do think that the way democrats and republicans view "a helping hand" is completely different though.
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First off let me say thank you for a respectful sincere post. I wasn't sure what the first reply would look like after my post. Second off I want to clarify that I personally know Democrats who are against laziness and fraud same as I know Conservatives who game the system. I just choose to be a conservative because I think it works best for me. I would hope our Government would be conservative as well so we are not wasting our resources and taxes on programs that are useless or prone to fraud. I would rather we keep our Government small and in check so they do not dictate to us how to live our lives, but instead guide the country as we see fit.

That said, I believe the system as intended was designed for folks like your mother. My parents also had me at 17 & 18. Those were pretty different times back then. At least for me that is. I am 43 so it was a little more acceptable for folks to marry younger. Now days it seems like kids just have kids with no plan to start a family at all. They collect them like a kid would collect Hot Wheels or Barbies. My younger sister being one of those. Anyway I am happy your mother was able to use the system and eventually pull her self out of the position she was in. That is def a success story which I am certain there are many. She doesn't sound like the type of person that would settle for the lifestyle of being on welfare and who could blame her. Fantastic that she pulled through!.

I have to disagree on one item. I think there is a difference on the way Cons and Libs look at helping out. I think they both agree there needs to be assistance but I believe there is a big diff in to what extent and how long that should be provided.

Anyway thanks for the respectful reply.
 
I started out a pretty die-hard Republican. But then two things happened. I began to ponder how the "small government" message of the GOP lined up with the hard line social conservatism of the party and couldn't bridge those two ideologies. Secondly, once GWB got elected, I began to see a vast difference between the rhetoric of the GOP and the actions of the GOP. So called small government, fiscal conservatives who oversaw massive expansions of the federal government and a huge increase in deficits. People who claimed to be opposed to nation building and advocated a "humble" foreign policy advocating wars based on neoconservativism. It just wasn't for me and I bailed.

I'm not a registered member of any party and consider the Libertarian Party as a whole to be extremist and nuts, but I've voted for them in the last two Presidential elections as a way of officially registering my disgust with the candidates from both parties. I consider myself a moderate, small L libertarian.
 
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