Do you share the same political views as your parents?

[Mr. Lennon]

Majority of children will usually follow their parents political views from a young age. Very few will go on later to change those views.

My parents are the typical religious right wing followers. I used to blindly follow those beliefs/views until I started educating myself on these topics, as well as question said views/beliefs. The end result left me as an Independent with socially liberal and fiscally conservative views. I have also ditched religion entirely.


Feel free to share your story.

 

[Red Dawn]

Never with my dear Mother who is a dyed in the wool Republican,an avid viewer of Fox News and a Fundamentalist Christian. I use to with my father but after almost 60 years of marriage my Mother has turned him LOL. Both spend a good portion of their day watching all the hysterics broadcast on Faux News. I just spent two weeks in CA with them and it about drove me nuts.

 

[MotF Bane]

Mostly. My parents are fiscally conservative, and socially moderate - lacking religion being the biggest separation from social conservatism. I'm a fiscal conservative, but socially far more liberal than they are.

 

[spidey07]

I was quite liberal/progressive when I was in college/20s, always butting heads with my parents. They kept telling me I'd see the "real world" a little differently when I was in it for a while and grew up.

Boy were they ever right.

 

[TruePaige]

I was quite liberal/progressive when I was in college/20s, always butting heads with my parents. They kept telling me I'd see the "real world" a little differently when I was in it for a while and grew up.

Boy were they ever right.

They knew you were a tool before any of us ever heard from you, eh?

 

[StageLeft]

Not really at all.

 

[irishScott]

Nope. Both parents are hardcore Republican, I've got some conservative leanings but I'm pretty damn independent. Closer to Libertarian than anything else.

 

[Red Dawn]

I was quite liberal/progressive when I was in college/20s, always butting heads with my parents. They kept telling me I'd see the "real world" a little differently when I was in it for a while and grew up.

Boy were they ever right.

Mom and Dad?

 

[MotF Bane]

Poll sucks.

 

[Atreus21]

I came to a crossroads once with my college friends not understanding why I aligned so closely politically with my parents. The answer is deference. These people have been on this earth 3 times longer than I have, and have gained the dumb certainties of experience which cannot necessarily be logically explained, but are nonetheless certain.

I don't like overthrowing tradition. It's very rare that anything manifestly wrong or evil lasts the test of time. By extension, those ideas that have stood the test of time deserve at least our grudging respect.

 

[Possessed Freak]

Can't vote in poll: My mother is a bit too conservative for me. My father is on some zen Buddha hippy kick lately so I can't agree with him. They are both fiscally conservative so I can agree with that.

 

[Martin]

Both my parents were quite apolitical.

 

[BoberFett]

My parents are staunch Republicans, Fox News and all. My mom especially. They're also religious. I inherited none of that. My dad is starting to come around and see things from the libertarian point of view, but my mom is kind of a right wing nut. Gotta love her anyway.

 

[Deeko]

My mom is a democrat, and my siblings are very liberal (& active in politics). My dad doesn't really affiliate himself with a party, his family is all Republicans, he leans a bit more conservative, but he doesn't really vote a party line (I believe he voted for Perot at some point, and he actually voted for Obama in 08).

I guess I'm closer to my Dad's views in that I do not associate myself with a party. On some matters I am more conservative than anyone in my family. In others, I'm more aligned with my siblings.

 

[SammyJr]

My father desperately wants to identify with the Tea Party because like most of them, he's white and older than 60. He's of their era and shares many of their prejudices. But when you actually talk to him and let him vent out the talking points, he's quite moderate or even left leaning. He opposes the wars, supports Government-run catastrophic type health insurance, recognizes Palin as a moron, deplores the anti-intellectualism of the right, supports business regulation, etc.

So yes, my parents and I have a lot of common political beliefs, but I have to dig through the FOXNews BS to get to it.

 

[ichy]

I'm more conservative than my parents on some issues (capital punishment, welfare spending) more liberal on others (abortion, I'm also pro-gay marriage whereas they're apathetic about that). On a lot of other issues we see eye to eye.

 

[Mr. Lennon]

I was quite liberal/progressive when I was in college/20s, always butting heads with my parents. They kept telling me I'd see the "real world" a little differently when I was in it for a while and grew up.

Boy were they ever right.

No way in hell were you ever left leaning. Someone who envisions a utopian America without any gays, atheists, or Muslims would never have a left leaning bone in their body.

 

[CPA]

My mom and stepdad are union loving liberals. I do not share their views...at all

 

[HumblePie]

Strange at it may sound, my parents have adamantly refused to talk politics or religion with me while I was growing up. I know they are slightly religious, but nothing hardcore. So, since my parents basically refuse to tell me their beliefs I can't answer this poll

 

[spidey07]

No way in hell were you ever left leaning. Someone who envisions a utopian America without any gays, atheists, or Muslims would never have a left leaning bone in their body.

Martin loves to leave that quote which was taken out of context. I don't want a muslim, athiest or gay for president because they don't share my beliefs. Big difference.

But yeah, I used to think the world was so unfair because of healthcare, the poor, the hungry, the homeless, all the downtrodden and just how unfair it all was. Why modern society just shouldn't have these atrocities and government was the solution to provide for everybody needs.

Then I stuggled to put food in my belly and a roof over my head and worked my ass off because I never wanted to be poor again. THAT's when I changed. If my lazy ass can do it, anybody can. Only got more libertarian/conservative as my tax bill grew. Every political poll I've ever taken in the last 5-10 years puts me squarely as a Capitalist.

The old saying really is true, if you vote repub when you're under 30 you have no heart.
If you vote Dem over 30 you have no brain.

 

[piasabird]

This poll is a silly assumption. Often parents are not affiliated with the same political leanings. My parents were not that vocal with their political thinking. I can not ever remember by father ever telling me his political views. He was in the Air Force and it is illegal to be political active in the military. He definitely believed in saving money and working hard for his family, sometimes doing two jobs to get by.

I believe what Micheal Savage says: "Liberalism is a mental disease!" Often it is a coin toss who to vote for. When you have to choose between a Neo-con and a Ultra Liberal Marxists you just have to hold your nose and pull the lever.

 

[Mr. Lennon]

If a mod could add this 5th option to the poll:


My parents did not push their political views/beliefs on me.

 

[sMiLeYz]

My parents were democrats, but usually pretty apathetic in general. They do hate black people (our family grew up outside Baltimore City).

They always told me that Democrats tend to watch out for the little people more. As my parents grew older, and older. They grew more conservative, they all perfered Hillary and McCain over Obama.

When I was growing up during the Clinton years all the way up until September 11, I was rah-rah America is the best country in the world. Alot of shady shit went down, the Patriot Act, like the Iraq War, finding no weapons of mass destruction changed alot of my views and I started questioning things.

 

[Red Dawn]

Martin loves to leave that quote which was taken out of context. I don't want a muslim, athiest or gay for president because they don't share my beliefs. Big difference.

But yeah, I used to think the world was so unfair because of healthcare, the poor, the hungry, the homeless, all the downtrodden and just how unfair it all was. Why modern society just shouldn't have these atrocities and government was the solution to provide for everybody needs.

Then I stuggled to put food in my belly and a roof over my head and worked my ass off because I never wanted to be poor again. THAT's when I changed. If my lazy ass can do it, anybody can. Only got more libertarian/conservative as my tax bill grew. Every political poll I've ever taken in the last 5-10 years puts me squarely as a Capitalist.

The old saying really is true, if you vote repub when you're under 30 you have no heart.
If you vote Dem over 30 you have no brain.

Except in your case you don't seem to possess either.

 

[Bowfinger]

Sorry, can't answer the poll. The world isn't the simple, black and white, Republican vs. Democrat dichotomy it requires. My parents were independent and so am I. I don't care for either party. though I think the Republicans are notably worse.

Contrary to my parents' views (especially my mother's), I became a Republican early in my career when, like so many here, I thought making money was the most important thing in life and all I could think about was how to get more of it. I was climbing the ladder of success and I believed the Republican Party generally represented people like me best. I was driven from the RNC, however, as it focused its interests on the ultra-privileged few and its values on greed, dishonesty, and pandering to the religious extremists. (Or perhaps those were always its values and I was simply too naive and self-absorbed to see it.) In my core, I'm old-fashioned. I believe honesty and integrity are the true measure of a person's worth. I grew to realize that in spite of all the RNC's lip service, they did not support those values in practice.

I still sometimes vote Republican in those races where they offer a candidate who appears to be honest and able to think for himself. Sadly, those opportunities have dwindled sharply over the last few years. Charles Grassley has finally lost my vote. I supported him for years because he had always seemed honorable and had been a strong force in fighting government waste and fraud (outside of Ag subsidies, of course). It concerned me when he crawled into bed with the Finance industry, contrary to the interests of the people he was elected to represent. The last straw though was when he started bleating the whole "death panel" slime. That was too dishonest and nakedly partisan for me.

That said, I've not been a fan of most Democratic candidates either. I vote third party at least as often as I vote for Tweedle Dumb or Tweedle Dumber ... which matches what my parents always preached: think for yourself and vote for the man, not the party.