When Did You Start Paying Attention To Politics?
POSTED BY: deepgirl187
UPDATED: Friday, December 6, 2024 04:01
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And what was the catalyst for it? Was it a parent? An article in some some newspaper? Discuss.
I was probably around eleven or so. Bob Dole came to the high school and we had this huge rally. I remember being annoyed that I was forced to be present, especially considering the fact that I wouldn't vote for the guy even if I was old enough to do so. I only started actively taking an interest a few years ago, but that was the first time I probably started to consider the idea as more than an abstract concept that didn't effect me.
On the other hand, my mother always likes to relate the story of how at four years old, I proudly told her boss that I was voting for Dukakis. So maybe it was earlier than that. 
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Towards the end of the Vietnam War. I had "followed" politics in the sense that I knew who was President and I knew that people in Chile got killed in a coup, but it just didn't hit home until I saw Hearts and Minds. And then it struck me that the people who were getting killed were people. Real people whose families wept and were terrified. Babies, parents, young boys and girls... I never looked at politics the same since.
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Always look upstream.
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When I stopped working 80 hours a week.
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When I realized my middle school history teacher was shovelling a load of propagandized BS at me.
Interest in history followed, soon followed by politics as I began to realize the impact such things were beginning to have on my life as I got closer to adulthood - I have ALWAYS wanted a spaceship and a lot of distance between me and this rock, long before the internet or even cellphones...
-Frem
It cannot be said enough, those who do not learn from history, are doomed to endlessly repeat it
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My earliest political memory is seeing posters for an election when I was about eight years old, and asking my Mum which one was the Irish team. I think I got the election mixed up in my head with the world cup or something.
About a year later I was home sick from school when the IRA detonated a bomb in the town of Enniskillen during a Remembrance Day Service. That's the first incident of The Troubles that I remember. My strongest memories are of the news footage and witness descriptions that day, and an interview the father of one of the victims gave about a week later, in which he described how his daughter died while they were both trapped in the rubble. Basically, he kept asking his daughter if she was okay (he couldn't see her) and she kept saying yes, but he knew she was lying because she kept screaming. He asked her one last time if she was all right, and she replied "Daddy, I love you very much" and never spoke again. The interview made me cry.
(The part I missed was that the father said he bore no ill will to his daughters killers, which many people say prevented revenge attacks taking place in the aftermath of the blast. The man himself became an important figure in the Irish peace process. He died a few years ago.)
It was at this time that my Dad first told me that he and my Mum were in Dublin city the day it was bombed, a few years before I was born. Because they were late to their usual meeting place, they missed the first blast by several minutes. It blew my mind, realising that if they'd been on time they could well have died, and none of my family would have been born. Whenever I heard of a terrorist attack, it used to make me think of all the families that would never be. It's still a thought that gives me pause to this day.
I first became interested in the political process at eleven when my teacher explained that our two main political parties arose from the opposing sides of the Irish civil war that took place back in the 20's. That makes us different to most countries, where political parties are split along the left / right divide. The civil war is just past living memory, but a lot of people still remember the deep bitterness and division that carried over to the next generation.
That same year our teacher helped us understand two world political events - the falling of the Berlin Wall and the massacre of protesting students at Tiananmen Square. I think it's fair to say that those events, and the events in Ireland during the eighties and nineties, have shaped my interest and attitude to politics.
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Good question! I don't usually get into message board political topics, but this one caught my eye. For me it was actually as an adult, about five or six years ago.
I bought an exotic cat, an African serval. I checked the laws of my state and found that it was legal for me to own one, so I assumed I was good to go. Boy was that ever a mistake! PETA, the HSUS, and other extreme animal rights lobbies hate exotic pet ownership (well, really all pet ownership, but they fight the battles they can win) and every two years, they introduce a bill into our legislature to ban exotic pets. Guess what? They rarely have grandfather clauses, meaning if one of them passes one day, I have to give up my pet!
So....you could say my introduction to the political process was the day I testified before the state senate about exotic animals. It was the most humiliating and enraging experience....and I've had a few in my time.
It opened my eyes to politics and how messed up our political system is. From there, it was just one step away to start examining our country's current politics, the war on terror, the war in Iraq, and that nifty little issue where we, the United States, bastion of freedom, justice, and human rights, decided it was perfectly okay for us to start torturing people.
Really....I'm not sure I'm glad I started paying attention to politics. They make me walk around with a ticked-off "WTF?????" expression on my face.
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For me, it was a strange and slow process.
When I was young, I was interested in model kits. That led to going to airshows when I was in Arizona. Then that led to an interest in the military equipment, and also the history of war. I've always been somewhat interested in history, though. The military led to areas like foreign policy and budgetary policy. These areas in turn led to related ares like congress, the federal debt, etc. Eventually, I was following just about everything in the paper, even the interior/DNR and education. To this day, my two favorite magazines are Sierra and Air Forces Monthly (the best!!!).
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Three months ago when I was forced to take a class on it (And still am). Been interested in History for quite a few years now, but I always (And still do) found politics to be depressing. I mean, yeah, I watched the Colbert Report for shits and giggles, but noting more. The world is just so messed up that, honostely, I've stopped caring all that much. We're gonna invade Iran? Wake me up when wqe start sending Nukes, then I'll find a bomb shelter from the 50's. You can't save all the people out there- I just try to keep safe me and mine in my own lil' piece of it.
-Danny
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As long as I can remember.
My folks taught me that it wasn't just my right, but my duty to participate. One parents was Rep and the other was Dem. I had a pretty even go at gravitating to one or the other. They always stressed that you can't rely on parties and that you have to look at the candidates.
I was always into local politics (city & state) and often accompanied my parents when they went to the polls. I guess I got into broader politics (nat'l and int'l) at about 10 or 11. As a teen I helped out on some campaigns and participated in several demonstrations. I was lucky enough to be a part of a group of local youth that met with our 1st female mayor, our Senators and Reps, and even the Surgeon General. I learned a lot about perceived power from them...especially J.Elders. She was an interesting woman to talk with. I was less fond of her after meeting her.
I registered the day I turned 18.
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Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?" Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night."
-- Charlie Brown
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I started paying attention around the 2004 election, partially because that was the first one I was able to vote in and largely because i found myself largely hating everything about the idiot that somehow still rules this country.
I was very saddened to see that the best the democratic party could come up with was Kerry, I mean, it really shouldn't have taken much to beat bush, and kerry was the best they could do.
I was also saddened to come to the realization the democracy means you sorta kinda have the right to choose between 2 people, a single republican or a single democrat, why would anyone need more choices than that....
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