When did you first become interested in politics?

[CaughtintheMiddle1990]

The first time I ever came near anything political was when my mom took me with her to vote in the 1996 election--for Bill Clinton. She told me about it and why she was there, and in school (I was in first grade at the time) we discussed the candidates briefly.

But in 2000 my parents followed the election closely, and I followed it with them--they were supporting Bush over Gore. I stayed up all night on election night hoping for Bush to win, and I remember falling to sleep with him as the winner; I don't really remember the whole election controversy.

I really got into politics during the 08 campaign...And I've been deep into it ever since.

[Kay]

My mother was a precinct chairman in the Republican party and my first recollection of helping her with a presidential campaign was in support of Barry Goldwater in 1964. :eek: (yes I'm that old).

When I turned 18 I went to work for her as an election clerk, and worked every election just about after that for many many years. Was a precinct chair myself, and election judge. Retired from that about 4 years ago when I moved back here, but I still make the state conventions as a delegate.

[FlaGator]

When I was 29, I started listening to conservative talk radio. That was my first exposure to conservatism. Before that I was a, more or less, disinterested social liberal. I didn't follow politics too closely and basically operated on what felt like the right thing to do. I really didn't look too deeply into issues. All that changed when I discovered that the beliefs of conservatism where more in sync with what I actually thought. I was appalled at how wrong I had been because I simply believed in the feel-goodism that seems to be core of liberal thought. To me this is a very superficial world view. When I started deconstructing liberal solutions that I had previously supported I realized that many of them at best did more harm than good and some of them were actually dehumanizing and bred a modern form of slavery that didn't seem like slavery because those under it's yoke were getting their basic needs met with little or no exertion on their part. I came to the conclusion that much of what I supported had worked to tighten the yoke and I saw (and still see) conservative initiatives as a way to loosen the bonds.

[Apache]

I've pretty much been around politics my whole life. My mother, like Kay's, was a volunteer for Goldwater in '64. She was also party to his senatorial runs. She kept saying how hard it was to be a Republican in Arizona back then...

[ralph wiggum]

I was one of the editors of my high school newspaper in Iowa in 1988. Candidates flocked to my suburban Des Moines high school. I got to meet and/or interview Jack Kemp, Pete DuPont, Bruce Babbitt, Jesse Jackson, Pat Buchanan, maybe a few others I'm forgetting. I was able to get a press pass to cover the 1988 Iowa caucuses, which got me backstage at a lot of the campaigns for the entire day/night.

So that's more or less what got me interested.

[asdf2231]

Watching the media and the Left in the aftermath of 9/11.

Thats what got me serious about politics.

[Rockntractor]

When Clinton won his first term.

[Sonnabend]

Since the day I was old enough to vote, at 18. Before that, I kept a close eye on world affairs, and did two term papers in History class on WW2 and Entebbe.

World affairs were discussed in class each week, with some heated debates.

[Rockntractor]

Since the day I was old enough to vote, at 18. Before that, I kept a close eye on world affairs, and did two term papers in History class on WW2 and Entebbe.

World affairs were discussed in class each week, with some heated debates.

We had a lot of heated debates in high school, but of course that was in Minnesota and it got cold outside!

[Sonnabend]

We had a lot of heated debates in high school, but of course that was in Minnesota and it got cold outside!

I was in NZ when the word of Operation Thunderbolt hit the news stands. People were laughing at Amin and expressed admiration at the Israelis...that is still a textbook example of a perfect anti terror op.

Israelis kick ass.