How did you settle on your political stance?

GinAg (39)

User
Pronouns
He/Him
Joined
Aug 3, 2009
Messages
228,878
I know the traditional response was "my parents voted for them", but I suspect particularly since Brexit that's gone out the window, especially since politics especially in the UK is extremely visible now.

Obviously influenced by the @Kratz CONVERSION which is most notable Moopy change of political stance, but I know there are others.
 
I've always swung left, despite my parents voting Tory (although my mother has become utterly disenfranchised).

I became interested in politics when I was 10, when Thatcher resigned. I became quite invested around the 1992 election and just couldn't understand why anyone would say what the Tories were saying. I've flitted between Lib, Lab and Green in my voting life, but essentially will vote for whoever could keep the Tories out.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?
 
I did veer right in the early 2000s. I didn't support the war in Iraq or our relationship with America and, at the time, the Tories weren't the hard-right thundercunts they are now (Or, at least, they'd been out of power long enough that I didn't feel like they were cunts). Youthful idealism led me to a dalliance with the Tories because they seemed like the most viable way to protest, is what I guess I'm saying. I'll happily admit that, at the time, I was ignorant to the wider narrative around the Conservatives; there definitely wasn't the stigma attached to them then that there is now. Ideologically, I'd say I've never been anything other than left.

I vote Labour now and would only consider voting Green or Lib Dem if it was the best tactical way to oust the local Tory. This is based purely on the fact that Labour are the best placed to actually get rid of the fuckers, and regardless of anyone's opinion on Starmer it's hard to argue that a Labour government wouldn't be infinitely more accountable or socially conscious than the Tories.
 
I know the traditional response was "my parents voted for them", but I suspect particularly since Brexit that's gone out the window, especially since politics especially in the UK is extremely visible now.

Obviously influenced by the @Kratz CONVERSION which is most notable Moopy change of political stance, but I know there are others.
Great question - my parents were never that politically active - my mum voted Conservative (not sure about my dad). I probably inherited their views - economically centre right and socially liberal. I was very interested in political science and psephology which is why I got actively involved in politics and ended up working in it. With my background and where I was from, that leant itself to the Conservatives.

The simplest explanation for why my political views have changed, and so drastically, is that I had a sheltered upbringing and as a result was naive and sure even a little ignorant. What is more interesting to me is my mother going on the same journey in her 60s.

Even if my views were similar now to in my 20s, I doubt I would be voting Conservative. I would be a Liberal Democrat and perhaps always should have been.
 
I did veer right in the early 2000s. I didn't support the war in Iraq or our relationship with America and, at the time, the Tories weren't the hard-right thundercunts they are now (Or, at least, they'd been out of power long enough that I didn't feel like they were cunts). Youthful idealism led me to a dalliance with the Tories because they seemed like the most viable way to protest, is what I guess I'm saying. I'll happily admit that, at the time, I was ignorant to the wider narrative around the Conservatives; there definitely wasn't the stigma attached to them then that there is now. Ideologically, I'd say I've never been anything other than left.

I vote Labour now and would only consider voting Green or Lib Dem if it was the best tactical way to oust the local Tory. This is based purely on the fact that Labour are the best placed to actually get rid of the fuckers, and regardless of anyone's opinion on Starmer it's hard to argue that a Labour government wouldn't be infinitely more accountable or socially conscious than the Tories.
I always forget how old you are.

Obviously at my age New Labour were such a breath of fresh air, which after 2001 became very stale. Although I'd never touch the Tories they were hardly the pro peace choice!
 
Great question - my parents were never that politically active - my mum voted Conservative (not sure about my dad). I probably inherited their views - economically centre right and socially liberal. I was very interested in political science and psephology which is why I got actively involved in politics and ended up working in it. With my background and where I was from, that leant itself to the Conservatives.

The simplest explanation for why my political views have changed, and so drastically, is that I had a sheltered upbringing and as a result was naive and sure even a little ignorant. What is more interesting to me is my mother going on the same journey in her 60s.

Even if my views were similar now to in my 20s, I doubt I would be voting Conservative. I would be a Liberal Democrat and perhaps always should have been.
I have a friend in her 50s who always voted Tory, even Brexit and then went to Uni and realised how wrong she'd been and is now pretty hard left!

Fascinating you went so deep into the party, and then changed. I guess it happens to MPs too. Not that you don't have the right to change, just a real curio to me.
 
My mom is a lifelong Democrat and my dad has been almost my entire life. So I was influenced by that. And then the fact that I’m gay.

The first election I remember reallly caring about was Obama’s first one. I never got to vote for him though, since I was 17 in 2012

The Republican Party is obviously absolutely evil, so I would never even consider voting for them. The democrats aren’t perfect, but they’re better
 
I have a friend in her 50s who always voted Tory, even Brexit and then went to Uni and realised how wrong she'd been and is now pretty hard left!

Fascinating you went so deep into the party, and then changed. I guess it happens to MPs too. Not that you don't have the right to change, just a real curio to me.
It's really fascinating the journeys that individuals go on (and I know a number of people I worked with at the time who have had a similar trajectory) - to contrast me and my family, I had gone on much of this journey before 2016 but for my family it was Brexit which was absolutely the last straw.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RJN
I have a friend in her 50s who always voted Tory, even Brexit and then went to Uni and realised how wrong she'd been and is now pretty hard left!

Fascinating you went so deep into the party, and then changed. I guess it happens to MPs too. Not that you don't have the right to change, just a real curio to me.
I have at least 5 friends who’s parents have only started voting Democrat since 2016
 
I always forget how old you are.

Obviously at my age New Labour were such a breath of fresh air, which after 2001 became very stale. Although I'd never touch the Tories they were hardly the pro peace choice!
This is what I mean. I was 14 when Labour came to power and only really knew enough about politics to know everyone was happy about it. My Mum is Lib Dem and my Dad was Tory until they threatened our EU membership (he says Brexit cured him of voting Conservative) so it wasn't like there was a dominant stance within my family and I never really bothered with politics at all. If I knew at 18 what I know now I'd never have seen the Tories as a viable alternative, but I don't feel bad about it because I was never aligned to what the right stands for in any way.
 
I have at least 5 friends who’s parents have only started voting Democrat since 2016
I expect we may see a correlation between the decline of the middle-class suburban Republican voter and the way the support for the Conservatives is shifting in the UK (particularly what appears to be the start of its decline in the South East).
 
I expect we may see a correlation between the decline of the middle-class suburban Republican voter and the way the support for the Conservatives is shifting in the UK (particularly what appears to be the start of its decline in the South East).
These people are all upper middle class suburban voters so it makes sense. The education polarization seems like it’s going on all over the world right now
 
I expect we may see a correlation between the decline of the middle-class suburban Republican voter and the way the support for the Conservatives is shifting in the UK
The middle-class/educated Tory voter really isn't that much of a thing in the UK anymore. The rhetoric that the 'London elites' are Labour voters and Remainers is bizarre enough, but to know the Tories have a foothold in Bolton, when older Boltonians used to confidently tell me 'Nobody in Bolton will ever vote Tory', just blows my mind.

I'm rural working class born in the Midlands. Demographically speaking I should be the flag-shaggingest Tory Brexitwat you'll ever meet.
 
My parents were Labour/SNP. I've always known Tories were evil but in 2010 I wasn't fussed with Labour or Scottish Independence so landed on Lib Dems (the debates really helped Nick Clegg) the events a few days later put a quick end to my love affair with centrism (moderately evil is still evil) and I've bounced between all the left wing parties since.

Getting a better political education on modern, workable left wing policies means I'm a democratic socialist, and I doubt that will change now for life. Was fully on board with Corbyn at the start (joined Labour to vote for him) and will still generally defend his policies, but not so blind to the reality that electability is important. Pretty happy that I can vote Green and get them into government in Scotland.

I only support Scottish Independence because Westminster is so fundamentally broken and it just doesn't seem possible for it to be fixed in my lifetime. I'm not by any means a proper nationalist (a world with no borders :disco:) but after the English decided to continue killing poor people because someone had the temerity to eat a bacon sandwich awkwardly, I just want OUT and back into the arms of the EU.
 
@ZenGiraffe is “democratic socialist” a common phrase in the UK. I’ve only heard it in regards to American politics, and it’s how I’d describe my politics
 
@ZenGiraffe is “democratic socialist” a common phrase in the UK. I’ve only heard it in regards to American politics, and it’s how I’d describe my politics
You wouldn't hear it much outwith university tbh. Socialism and Communism are understood to be different things in the UK and the rest of Europe so in the mainstream it doesn't really need to be included that it's democratic. I only mention it as a distinct entity from social democrats, which are more centrist/right wing depending on which European country you use as a baseline.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RJN
I still find them fascinating, but going to University cured me of my 100% pro royal stance. Not quite a political angle, but it was still pretty entrenched in me. Otherwise it only validated what I already believed.

Of course access to information on social issues in recent years has helped me to refine and improve my point of view.
 
These people are all upper middle class suburban voters so it makes sense. The education polarization seems like it’s going on all over the world right now
It really does. I don't think it's that new, but only recently developed into a feature of the left.
 
I fear getting old, being scared of the youth, losing my mind and converting the wrong way.

Hopefully I'm educated enough to safeguard against that risk.
 
My parents always voted Labour, but my maternal grandparents were small C conservative Polish immigrants, and voted big C Conservatives, despite having no wealth whatsoever.

My first vote came when I was studying at Cambridge in 2005, and the momentum was with the Lib Dems, who aligned better with youthful idealism and the likelihood of subsequently going to work for the Big Four or the Magic Circle three years later. So I voted for them.

I again voted for the Lib Dems in 2010, seduced by Nick Clegg and his tuition fees policy. Although the rise in tuition fees had not affected me, I felt that it was a deeply unfair policy, and turned me off Labour at the time.

I left the UK in 2012. I was broadly OK with the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition. It coincided with a time where I started to make more money, and I think there's no one more vulnerable to low-tax discourse than someone who comes from nothing but starts to earn. Gay marriage and a general cosmopolitan, open London seemed to confirm to me that the UK was being competently run.

Brexit was the moment that shattered all of this. I think there are few who are as ardently anti-Brexit as I have been over the last 6 years. I genuinely despise it with every fibre of my being. On a very personal level, it was traumatic to have my right to live in the EU removed as I lived there. Thankfully, both my parents had alternative EU citizenships. And then on a broader, but still personal level, it caused a kind of rupture with my relationship to my country. I could not really bear to be associated with Brexit Britain, and developed an antipathy to the "white English" identity in many ways.

Everything that has happened since has given me a life-long hatred of the Tory party, and I hope to see Johnson, Raab, Patel, et al. in prison one day. Whether they committed crimes or not.

My position today is broadly still a Lib Dem one (pro-European Macronism if you will), although I lean more into socialism than previously, because I feel that the social ladders that I benefitted from (affordable higher education, a reasonably well-funded NHS, freedom of movement in the EU) have been stripped so viciously away from the youth of today, that only a swing back to the left will reinstate the status quo of my adolescence.
 
I come from a background where everyone is economically left but socially mostly conservative. I’d like to think that the latter is mostly due to them growing up in a different world.

I myself have always been a centrist and there isn’t any party that I feel represents me to the fullest. There are obvious factors to the right that I abhor but there are also several aspects to the left that I cannot stand.

I usually either vote for the Social democrats or the Liberals (always the Liberals in the EU Parliament elections) but at times I’ve been more leaning to the right and other times more to the left. 2014 I voted for the uber woke Feminist party before woke was a thing, today I wouldn’t waste my vote on a niche party.

(Disclaimer: Swedish parties are generally very social liberal and even the Right parties would land to the left of the Democrats in the US both on social and fiscal issues.)
 
I've been 'fortunate' enough to have been exposed to equal parts Left and Right. My parents are moderate conservatives. They were both VERY anti Brexit and vaccines aren't even a question. But we also grew up in very leftist New Zealand and now I'm in very left Midwest.

In fact, at the age of 34, I've called 3 different countries home and I've lived with and BEEN almost every demographic there is. I've lived with the rich, the middle and the poor, the First World and the Third World. I've been both the privileged majority and the persecuted minority. I've lived under democracies and dictatorships, with virtually every race, religion and ethnicity there is. And to be honest, none of them are short on problems. Obviously, democracies are much more favorable for the individual, but it comes with its own flaws and problems.

All that aside, we were also raised with biblical Christianity, which always stressed complete trust in God, before anyone else. It emphasized respecting authority, following the law, but in the end we put our longterm trust in God, not politicians. We're taught to endure, not fight back. If I had to get up and move again, I'd do it.

In the end, I don't really have a political inclination. I'm very much a spectator, not a participant. I'm very blessed to be here tbh. I love Chicago, as imperfect as it is. I like helping out on an individual level. You don't need a 'movement' to do good.

In a cruel twist of fate, I ended up going into Public Policy, which means now I HAVE to engage in politics.
 
I was always told not to talk about politics or religion so I genuinely had no idea of my parents' political views. I still couldn't tell you how my dad voted, and I've only spoken to my mum about it in the last couple of years.

I didn't particularly care about politics growing up. I remember being against war BROADLY, and I think i was quite conservative in my early teens but that had changed by my late teens.

I didn't vote in 2010 - the first general election I could have voted in - but I did make fun of my ex for voting Lib Dem based on their student loans policy and then getting fucked over by them; the start of a lifelong commitment to roasting Lib Dems.
 
My parents weren’t particularly political growing up but obviously being in Liverpool nobody voted Tory. Joined the Labour party in Uni and remain a member to this day.

I’m aware that SOME QUEENS love to label me as a centrist these days, but it just isn’t true - in terms of my values I really think I’m as left as I’ve ever been. Very much socially liberal in virtually every respect and I would happily pay higher taxes if they were put to good use.

The Corbyn era was difficult for me. I totally celebrated it at first - seriously, the posts are out there - but I will never, ever forgive him for his arrogant, nonchalant attitude to Brexit during the referendum. Plus the longer he clung on it just became clear what a terrible leader he was. We may have shared some values, but the longer the Tories have free reign to fuck this country over, the less patience I have for ideology without strategy. I’d take someone with 60% of my values and a cat in hell’s chance of actually running the country than somebody who’s happy to carp from opposition forever any day of the week.
 
I'm strongly from a working class Northern background. Labour and unionism were all there was, and a pathological hatred for Conservative values which are viewed as selfish and destructive. Although my parents did buy their own council house under the right to buy scheme, without a thought for the further consequences.

That being said, I did vote for the libdems in the first three or four opportunities I had, seduced by anti-war, no tuition fees and the actual good policy they had on raising the minimum threshold for tax. I even persuaded my dad to vote for them in 2010 in a tory-dem marginal. He's never really forgiven me for that.

And I don't think I forgave myself either. I've voted Labour ever since (save green in one council by-election, just for fun).

I've almost become more left wing as I've got older. I hate politics of selfishness and division so much, and strongly support big state and national utilities to make the world more fair.
 
I have definitely become more left-wing as I've got older. I was never right wing but I was definitely centre for a long time; I strongly believed in electoral reform (I still do) and only the Lib Dems were offering this - as such, I found myself in voting for them repeatedly. When they got into bed with the Tories, I was initially disappointed but within a matter of weeks, I was absolutely gutted and I'll never forgive them for what they enabled. This was the point where I started paying a lot more attention to politics and moved leftwards.
 
My background is solidly working class, and all my grandparents very much Labour without a thought.

My parents are a different matter though. Dad always was Labour but then went Conservative under Thatcher because of what she was perceived to do for the self employed. And I'd echo what Loufoque said about people with nothing who start to earn. By pretty much any standard even when my Dad's business was successful we were relatively poor still - but we were one of only two houses in a terraced street of 40 odd houses which weren't council houses, and where both adults worked. Thatcher was aspirational. He did return to Labour under John Smith, and stayed with them until he died. He used to say Blair was the best Prime Minister we'd ever had, and died in 2005, so before a lot of people who had that opinion re-evaluated it.

My mum is politically gullible and stupid. And I'm afraid, racist. She voted National Front in the 70s, without really knowing what she was voting for. It did traumatise her for a long time and I don't think she voted again for well over 20 years. Since then I imagine she has voted for probably all the mainstream parties, UKIP in their prime, and Conservative last time 'to get Brexit done'. And she falls for all the worst rhetoric.

I've only ever voted Labour in a general election, but then I've never needed to consider anything else. I would absolutely vote differently if I had to to keep a Tory out.

For local elections I've voted Lib Dem and Green as well as Labour though, but then I tend to look at who is most active locally as well then, regardless of political colour. Well, except blue obviously.
 
Mine was my own doing, although my parents are/ were fairly left wing. My Mum was a leaflet dropper for the Lib Dems in the 80s but I’ve always been Labour. I’ve just never understood how you can support a party that wants to keep/ put other people down and that gravitated me to the left.
 
I keep typing stuff here and deleting it cos it’s hard to articulate what I wanna say.

I think my politics has been influenced by a couple of things: coming from an immigrant family that has NEVER trusted the Tories, choosing to believe in a faith that is about social justice first and foremost.

But I think my politics hasn’t changed over the years because my values haven’t. Sure, I’m insufferable and there’s loads I’ll freely admit that I don’t know. But I’ll learn. And if I don’t learn, I still choose to believe that everybody has the right to a good life and that somebody’s wealth or success doesn’t make them morally better than someone else.

I think it’s as simple as that?
 
Mine has very simple origins. Growing up my parents were either pretty apathetic or perhaps just didn't express political opinions due to not wanting to influence us; it was like that with religion as although they were both atheist, they wanted us to make up our own minds. So one day when I was about 13/14 I looked up the Conservative and Labour parties in the PEARS' CYCLOPEDIA. It basically said that the Conservatives stood for traditionalism and capitalism and Labour for progressivism and socialism, so then I had to look up all those terms, and I was like isn't it screamingly obvious that socialism is the ideal?! Why would anyone ever think otherwise? And I still feel the same today.
 
My parents never used to tell me who they were voting for, insisting such things should be kept secret. (I hope that means they weren't secretly voting for the BNP or something).

As a result, I was left to make my own decisions based on my own values when I got to voting age. Being heavily influenced by the fact I was going to clubs, taking pills, becoming more accepting and empathetic, hanging around with marginalised people in gay leaning clubs and seeing the world through new eyes certainly shifted my values towards being more liberal. I've always rallied against injustice and fought for the underdog since being a kid, and still consider myself to be working class deep down, so I'm naturally drawn toward the left and socialism.

In a world of PR I'd probably switch to the Greens now, I've voted Lib Dem in the past as Headingley was a LD stronghold and I liked the MP at the time, but as BT said, any votes for the forthcoming elections will be tactical to get the tories fucked the fuck off.
 
I was in a lefty bubble all my life - I don't actually think there's a more socialist city in the modern world than Liverpool :D Aside from the pockets of extreme wealth scattered around the region, where I'm sure the Tories get a smattering of votes, Liverpool is die-hard red. Even when other cities were turning a faint blue on the back of things like Brexit, the anti Corbyn movement, Liverpool never really wavered. A lot of it probably down to being VERY STUBBORN people.

Of course moving to London changed things. It's funny how something is normal and suddenly you realise that not everyone is the same. A bit like when you leave Catholic school and you realise that the teachers failed to mention that there are other people out there and not only that but you're in the MINORITY :D So I tended not to get into politics over dinner in London. You just never knew. I remember finding out months later that one of my flatmates was a staunch Tory and she'd spent all those months staring at my LABOUR mug in the cupboard :disco:

These days I think I'm more of a Green at heart, with a lean to Lib Dems. I'm just too much of a realist to vote for any of them. I'm very much a "sorry loves, but I'll take the lesser of two evils if it means keeping the scum out" kinda guy. I'm just very PRACTICAL.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom