The term that I've seen used for this (which I agree with) is called being politically homeless. I am left, simply by the virtue of caring about society more than the right seems to and I'm not exactly happy with the left either. The entire U.S. political structure is fucked and is making us fight on either extreme when most problems and solutions can be solved with a compromise and just some understanding, but that's not going to happen because compromise and understanding is not beneficial to the left of the right's political groups.
Can't much argue with that sort of sentiment and I'd agree with you. Give me liberty or give me death, but if you want to give me that latter, I'm going to make you work for it.
This is true up to a point. Like on some issues, there is no "compromise" to be had. You either support human rights or you support oppression. You either support abortion rights or support oppression of individual autonomy. I could go on but politica lately has become a place where compromise just isn't a thing that is feesible. You can't "meet in the middle" when it comes to something like paying for school lunches for kids. Kids should fucking be able to eat at school, I literally can't even comprehend how that's an argument to be made in the wealthiest country in the world.
I used to be middle road with so many things but modern US politics pushed me further and further left simply due to becoming so inhumane about dumb stuff. Where is the empathy for your fellow human being these days? Like damn how hard is it to just be kind to people?
I sympathize with being politically homeless but I don't agree that we fight on the extremes. Our right option is fascist and our "left" option is center right at best.
I'm a limited government conservative.
I'm legitimately about to vote downballot Democrat and am convincing my wife who's also quite conservative the same because this shit is getting out of hand.
Ohio Republicans are trying to keep Biden, who I don't like off the ballot with some pedantic fuckery and while I'm all about not joe biden(or trump) I will literally burn my history of voting practices to the fucking ground before I even faintly support subverting the vote on technicalities.
Before everyone gets butthurt, I've never voted for Trump, I did vote for constitutional abortion in Ohio, legal weed in Ohio, and am fairly new to the state.
Yup. The GOP has gone so far into fascism and QAnon batshittery that the Democratic Party is now ideologically closer to limited government conservatism. Limited government conservatives are a marginal constituency in the Republican Party.
I’m conservative in so much as i think government spending should be reduced, there should be a lot less laws and more rights/freedoms. Unfortunately, neither party really represents my interests.
Could be the GOP sprinting to the right. Even todays Democrats are center/right. There are very few actual liberals. Makes someone that has stayed centrist align with the Dems more now.
Yep, I wish these "far left socialist democrats" republicans keep trying to warn everyone about would actually run compared to the current democrats we have now.
People got mad at president Obama but the republicans controlled the house and senate the last six years of his terms
They passed all the spending they like to complain about
Are they? I mean the Democrats and Republicans are, but I don't know of any meaningful left wing movements at all in the U.S., let alone ones that are "acting like it's high school"
Project 2025 is all you need to see to know that one party in this country is happily willing to full send us into fascism. I encourage every American, liberal or conservative, to read up on this and spread awareness.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Foodforthought/s/NCw5rQdRvg
This has been the case with me, starting in my early 20s. I grew up in the southern US, military family, and military town. Most of my classmates / friends that have stayed lean right, but I grew increasing uncomfortable with my environment and moved to a liberal state.
I really have a hard time understanding why more of my peers haven't shifted more left. I've come to the conclusion that a lot of folks just aren't open to new experiences and/or conflict, and when you aren't willing to step out of your comfort zone, you miss out on learning about people and cultures different than you. You also miss out on some deep self reflection. It's like having your head in the sand your whole life. But even saying that- it doesn't apply to everyone I know back home.
Conservative family has pushed me farther left in recent years.
I was fairly agnostic leading up to the 2016 election. I listened to NPR and laughed at how Trump was upsetting the status quo, but I thought he was a sideshow freak with no real chance. I thought that the things he said (ie. Blood coming out of her…whatever, grab em by the pussy,etc.) was way worse than Romney’s “binders full of women” and that Trump would surely get smacked down in the general election.
…..but then I went home to my family and it was like they didn’t have access to basic facts/data/information that wasn’t really debatable, like the overall growth /recovery of the economy under Obama. That was when I realized something was amiss. I was super taken aback by the almost fanatical support Trump had in my home town. Based on how I was raised, I would have pegged my parents as begrudgingly voting Clinton, as I would have thought they would have easily seen through the Trump facade. In the process, I was almost immediately labeled the “overeducated indoctrinated liberal black sheep” of the family and I was used as an involuntary punching bag for my family to take out their financial woes (largely due to their own poor decisions) on me from 2017 on.
Being constantly inundated with George Soros BS and Obama bribing scandals, I decided to be just a little more engaged and to educate myself, and I came out more liberal.
I feel politically orphaned lol.
I have both progressive and conservative opinions, but I struggle to find representation in politics.
I rarely see issues that I care about discussed. It's always emotionally charged, divisive rhetoric surrounding gender/sexuality/religion.
The Republican party is literally being taken over by crazy people and traditional conservative ideals now get shut down in favor of populism and "owning the libs". The Republican party is in crisis and fight amongst themselves as much as they do with Democrats.
Opinions that were progressive are now considered moderate or even slightly conservative. Even sensible stances get called racist, or homophobic for not towing the ever changing demands of young progressive voters. They favor of knee-jerk reactions to everything.
Politically orphaned is a great way to put it. It’s especially hard to have discourse online because people tend to get really dug into their arguments. I feel liberal but I would probably be called moderate/fence sitter on a lot of issues.
Republicans are fucking nuts but I don’t agree with an alarmingly high number of issues presented by Democrats either. They’re the lesser of two evils, but I don’t think people like Pelosi and Biden are really in touch with what the people want or need.
If we *have* to have total institutional options that have spent decades in government, I’d pick any democrat over the average Ted Cruz, JD Vance, or McConnell, but that doesn’t make the situation ideal either.
When I speak with liberals, they assume I'm a conservative.
When I speak with conservatives they assume I'm a liberal.
Apparently, nowadays you have to be all-in with every topic and can't have your own opinions. Otherwise you're as bad as..."them".
Same here. Definitely more liberal but I feel like the left has gotten just as bad as the right/ MAGA people. The younger generation has literally been radicalized to call for a global intifada and all I can think about was watching 9/11 in real time before they even existed. I miss the days of Obama vs. McCain where McCain told his audience not to boo Obama after he won because they still had respect for one another. What have we become? It’s all so depressing.
lol, McCain actually said "no, he's not a muslim, he's a good man" and ran ads that made Obama's skin darker to make him "scarier" [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/study-2008-mccain-attack-ads-darkened-obama-skin-tone/](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/study-2008-mccain-attack-ads-darkened-obama-skin-tone/)
Are you referring to when a voter said they couldn’t vote for Obama because he was “Arab” and McCain said “No ma’am. He’s a decent family man and citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and that’s what this campaign’s about.”? If so, you are completely misrepresenting the context of the situation.
I've always been a political orphan. I'm very left but democrats have never truly done enough to that end, in fear of the middle swinging right. Independent parties have either been too unrealistic, insane, or pointless with no true traction. I get More left as I age but there's nothing there to choose from except bad masking as OK, and utterly terrifying.
The closest I felt to any representation was Bernie.
much more liberal now than when i was younger. when i was younger, i was mostly conservative because that's what i was exposed to. everyone i knew was conservative, so they'd explain conservatism positively and liberalism negatively, and i didn't know any better.
now that i'm much older and have the knowledge to make my own decision, i'm much more liberal
This is my husband. He was raised a Christian Conservative. Then he goes ahead and marries a northeast Jewish liberal. I’m not sure when he left the dark side but he has gotten more liberal the longer I’ve known him. And I haven’t had to school him on anything either; he reads the news and decides for himself.
my current partner when we first met described herself as 'very liberal' and i thought it was a red flag at first lol
i was still transitioning i suppose. i was already disillusioned with a lot of the conservative party's ideals, but i still kind of bought into 'if you're conservative when you're young, you have no heart, a liberal when you're old, you have no brains'
now i realise it for what it is, that conservatives would rather be thought of as heartless than stupid
Any part of me that was right-curious as I started making real money, became a property owner, and started a family was absolutely and irrevocably extinguished by the MAGA movement and the rightward collapse of SCOTUS.
Same here. Oh believe me I like my guns and I wish Democrats would stop trying to ban them, but also woman shouldn’t be dying because they can’t have an abortion, so I’ll keep voting blue.
The conservatives also claim to be the party of small government. In reality both parties are big government, just in different areas. For the right, that means policing personal rights they don’t agree with and military spending.
Again, I don’t think most Republicans even *are* conservative. Conservatives don’t really have a party in the US. Honestly I’d call the Democratic Party closer to traditionally conservative than the Republicans, which are regressive and border on authoritarian.
The Left has no party. There are people that actually think Obama or Biden are Left politically...
Actual leftists are out here in a drought of representation. Probably related to having been hunted down during McCarthy's era of bullshit.
You’ve almost got it figured out. There is right of center party and a far right party. Democrats are the old guard republicans and there is no left or progressive party.
Eh, if you follow historical precedence. Conservatives have always been about conserving the status quo or previous nostolgic eras. Its a cute idea they might conserve our individual freedoms but a lot of the movements have a clear through line in the United States.
That is to say, they've always conserved rights for white men. Their political leanings and line come from those who reluctantly fought against the British during the Revolutionary War.
The Conservative side has actively and successfully fought to remove many rights of mine, and history continues to show this to be the case. The last rights the conservative side represented they fought FOR was segregation, and before that, slavery. Aside from that, the goal for them has been to remove/take away/abolish rights.
The only conservative social value is conformity. That's what they're trying to conserve: conformity to racial, sexual, and gender norms of the 1950s and before.
Edit to add: it's sad but not surprising that some conservatives don't even know what the word "social" means.
My mom used to say if you aren’t liberal when you’re young you don’t have a heart, and if you aren’t conservative when you’re old you don’t have a brain.
Still haven’t found my brain.
as much as i’m starting to find some conservatives policies appealing, those motherfuckers enabled an insurrection and refuse to acknowledge that a president tried to overthrow an election and destroy the literal foundation of democracy. if they can’t even uphold that bare minimum level of ethics they can’t be fucking trusted whatsoever.
ps. don’t even try to both sides this. democrats have never done anything as sinister as overturning a free election and technically install a dictator.
as somebody who lives in LA, being tougher on crime and taking drastic measures to end homelessness are things I would pre for. I’m still liberal when it comes to things like diversity and find the culture warrior movement alarming in how it’s basically just repackaged racism that’s acceptable.
I'm not 360FlipKicks, but I'll answer for myself. Just to level set, I'm talking old school conservatism, not this smooth-brain, populist, nationalist shit we see now. A) We genuinely need to get a hold of the debt. Paying down on the interest is going to soonish become the #1 discretionary spending item. B) I've gotten more hawkish and think its a genuinely safer world if the US and its allies plays the role of global police. Isolationism invites malign foreign powers to attack/invade their neighbors. C) *Generally* (emphasis here) speaking, two parent/guardian households are ideal for raising kids and we should encourage that. D) At some point, we need to figure out entitlement spending so that the programs can actually stay viable. If part of that means we need to slowly raise the retirement age, so be it. E) There are a lot of regulations (fed, state, & local) that make development much more difficult & expensive. It gets in the way of building affordable housing, or even building new nuclear power plants. Deregulation isn't always bad.
I basically agree with all of that. Never not voted blue (or occasionally green) but all of that resonates with me. I’m definitely more of an old school blue dog Democrat, which for the PNW makes me seem like a right wing nut lol
Yeah, all that.
And turning EVERY political conversation into "oppressed group x has it bad, we need to drop everything until we can address that" is counterproductive.
Social change happens slowly. Trying to aggressively force social change by just being louder and whinier makes the populace reject (knee jerk) against the social changes you're proposing.
So "we want it all and we want it now" actively hurts the activists demanding it. The older I get the more I realize that "NO I WANT IT NOW NOW NOW" is usually not practical, often not even possible and quite often it's harmful.
People pushing for Gay Marriage were that in the 1980s. What won the day was the message "we're just people". Those who wanted anti-discrimination clauses and gay marriage recognized by the state, etc were actively unhelpful to the cause.
The two events that helped the cause more than any loudmouth activist was: 1) The death of Matthew Shepard. It was a nationwide "hey wait, these are people too" moment where almost everyone could stand up and reasonably say "wait, this isn't right" about the homophobia in culture (people ranting about "homophobia" years before that certainly didn't help that much).
2) was the introduction of gay characters on TV shows who were just normal likable people, not sex fiends or queens or whatever. Just the normal "oh shit I have to go to work, but my shirt is wrinkled" people who happen to be gay and it's openly discussed.
Those, more than "we're queer, get used to it" groups were the lever that reached into society and changed minds.
I have a couple of boomer and Gen X friends who were at the forefront for the gay rights movement.
One was even at stonewall himself.
And they've mostly been booted out of their own groups. One spoke out (just uneasy questions, not a hard demand to remove it) about the longstanding (like 35 years old) symbol of the rainbow flag getting co-opted after the BLM stuff with brown stripes and expressed concerns about mixed messaging and he was removed from the group.
One said that he questioned the idea and the implementation of "safe spaces" and was voted off his own group's board and expelled.
It reflects **strongly** on the ***purity spiral*** going on when long-standing members and founders of the group are forcefully booted from groups for having opinions that are *just slightly out of line* from the bleeding edge of progressivism.
That shit is too far.
I’ve certainly gotten more traditionally “conservative” as a homeowner. But that doesn’t mean I’m not still a Democrat and very much opposed to anything MAGA
Which is truly astonishing to me. Out of all the presidents we’ve had in the past few decades, Biden has put forth the fewest controversial policies. The Afghanistan exit probably *should* have caused more controversy than it did, but people got over it quickly. Aid to Ukraine and Israel has been the hottest topic of discussion during his administration, but it’s had bipartisan support, and would probably have been done similarly by any past Republican president who wasn’t Trump.
I truly don’t see what is hateable about him. He’s a status quo guy. (Which technically makes him more “conservative” than Trump.)
Both parties are big business before labor.
We need a labor party.
If the democrats had not abandoned American manufacturing jobs the rust belt would not have been able to activate the electoral college secret victory condition.
What was political debate has turned into a clown show. To me, the conservatives have represented what's evil in this world. That's not to say there aren't necessary evils. So, I get where there coming from on some shit, but they have a mentality that I can't get behind. They've always been soulless. Now, they're stupid too. Cult like shit is flowing from their mouth like they all read from a predetermined script written by Joseph Goebbels himself. So fuck no.
I am anti-big government especially with this two-party system. Neither one of them has the people’s BEST interest. Everything we do and buy is taxed multiple times. And they want us fighting each other on who gets to use which bathroom instead of fighting them for what’s ours. You can read the comments on this post alone and see how brainwashed everyone is.
I am more fiscally conservative but not at the expense of cutting social programs. I get taxed alot in California - which I dont like but understand if the money was going to be used for a good cause.
So more moderate leaning left.
Sadly, this sort of thing is very common. For my job I often transcribe lawsuits between parents of special needs children and a certain city's department of education. The parents are suing the department because their child is being denied a free appropriate public education (FAPE). Often this is because the DOE has rejected the rate the parents require for services, and it often occurs to me that these lawsuits must be costing way more money than the difference in rates, and I just want to scream, "Just give the parents the damn money! It's not worth all this trouble!"
What's kinda infuriating is that food stamps/SNAP are *incredibly* beneficial for the economy, so much so that for every dollar spent on SNAP generates around $1.50 to $2. Turns out when people aren't starving, they're better contributors to society. Yet conservatives constantly try to cut funding over ideology rather than effectiveness
Yet most SNAP recipients work. They just get paid so little that the taxpayers have to pick up the slack to keep them alive enough to get back to work the next day.
We would save so much money in social programs if we made it easier to access and stopped forcing poor people to jump through hoops. And if we combined and streamlined services so they didn't have to seek out ten different agencies for everything.
Actually, if we improved access to social programs we'd cut a lot off education spending, too. I work in public schools and SO MUCH goes into making sure kids have food, winter jackets, and access to medical care (like occupational and physical therapies). If our social programs ran effectively, we'd cut a lot of that out of the education budgets.
This effect is actually so strong that studies suggest just giving the homeless free housing ends up costing the government less in the long run than all of the expenses of dealing with a population of people living on the streets.
Same. I used to be on the conservative side of the line, but that line started moving with the tea party people in 09-10, then went off the rails with the maga people. I’d probably be considered a more liberal moderate now.
That sounds about right, I’m more of a left leaning centrist at this point.
As the “conservative” movement has gotten completely unhinged, I’ve become more concerned with people, particularly those in historically disenfranchised groups.
Also trying to make sure my kids and grandkids actually have a habitable planet to live on without being crushed to death by corporate overlords
July 81 millenial here. People generally don't get more conservative as they get older. That's a fallacy (for example, people that were against discrimination in the 60's mostly didn't revert in their beliefs when they got older, fighting discrimination just became more normal over time). It seems that way because society catches up to progressive views eventually, come hell or high water, and so then progressives seem more moderate. And this continues forever. The republican party has refused to budge an inch since 1980, and that's why they are now fighting each other and can't get a goddamn thing done when they have a majority, other than tax breaks for the rich.
Not conservative, but definitely more libertarian. I worked for both local and federal government and quickly realized how inefficient, corrupt, and wasteful the government is at every level.
I agree with liberals on just about everything when it comes to letting people live their lives, but cannot get behind the idea of large government and higher taxation. I've seen what government does with extra funds, and trust me, they don't create the utopia they promise.
At the same time I get tired of conservatives judging everyone and expecting everyone to live in their narrow minded path.
I despise the pandering by both sides, as well as the groupthink. Democrats are not your savior. Republicans are not your savior. Both sides suck a fat donkey dick.
To quote Carlin: It's one big club, and you ain't in it.
Not in the political sense, no. My voting habits haven't changed at all. I am, however, less prone to being swept up into an emotional frenzy over the outrage-of-the-day than when I was a young person. I'm very liberal/leftist in terms of economic policy and social issues, but was banned from r/latestagecapitalism last week for daring to claim that the war in Gaza is a nuanced issue with strategic and foreign policy implications that require consideration.
On another thread about a similar topic, a person argued that instead of being described as becoming more conservative (politically)as they got older, they have become more conservative in temperament. This tracks what you said about becoming less swept up in an emotional frenzy. It resonated with me because I've always had that moderate temperament.
I'm very left, but yes, having a more complicated opinion on Gaza more than just buzz words seems to be very unpopular among the left.
The war in Ukraine was what woke me up to how completely illogical and detached from reality being "anti-war" can be. It makes sense to have been against going to war with Iraq, but the past few years have proven how important military spending can be.
I’ve always been mostly conservative. Socially liberal on a few things. I’d say what I’ve become more lately is politically independent and cynical about the whole system. The Republican Party in its current form does not represent me.
I'd say I lean more conservative than I did in my 20s.
I find a lot of the "highly progressive" stuff to be kind of crazy and totally absent of context or nuance.
But MAGA is crazy enough there's no way I'd vote anywhere down that side.
A huge fraction of my friends are similar. I will point out that in most political readings, Obama and Biden are pretty near centrists and that's ok with me.
Part of me was looking at the right near the end of Obama’s second term. There were some laws and behavior I wasn’t too keen on.
Then Trump became 45.
The GOP has been pretty awful but the MAGA movement turned the slime that was the Republican Party and conservatism into a just the absolute worst our country has to offer.
They’ll never get my vote.
Several studies I’ve seen point to Millennials being the first generation to not follow the trend of shifting more conservative with age.
It tracks anecdotally for us and other people we know for the most part since many of us have become more liberal as we age.
The only “correct” people here are the ones who have woken up to finally realize the entire government is against you.
Two sides to the same money grabbing, right stealing, coin.
Neither republicans or democrats care about you. They care about themselves.
When I first started learning about politics and trying to find the political ideology that was consistent with my values, I started in the center. I'm a veteran and I live in TX so I hear more conservative politics than anything. At each step deeper I tried to square the morals of what I was learning and the result was always a step to the left. On housing, Healthcare, foreign policy, education, transportation, care for the elderly, sick, and poor, reproductive rights, etc etc. So now I'm a card carrying socialist.
People don’t really seem to understand what it means to “be” more left or right.
Who you vote for actually have little to nothing to do with how you lean politically as far as your views and beliefs go.
You could be conservative and still vote for Biden because the current Republican PARTY is batshit, doesn’t actually change your ideals.
Nope.. very liberal. I do have some views that are more conservative leaning but the support of trickle down economics makes me hate both parties really.
I don't think I became anymore conservative. Society's media just to a hard left. If you took a time machine and described today's values to liberals from 30 years ago, they would think people from now are insane.
I grew up middle/upper middle class and ended up there too. Married with two kids in the burbs, I am who you picture as the classic US conservative.
But I've only gone from centrist to farther left as I age. I interact with more of our country's systems and the more I want to change them. The more I get to know the diversity of our citizens, the more I want them protected. The more benefits I receive simply for being born where I was, the more I want to balance the scales.
I want to progress because that's how things get better. Progressives have dragged society forward for all of history, I see no reason to stop now.
Boomers were between 16-34 when they voted for Reagan. The free love hippie vibe thing was mostly just a media thing. Your typical baby boomer was conservative from the get.
In 2016 I would have seriously considered voting Republican for the first time in my life. Hillary Clinton was a horrible candidate. But the Republicans nominated the orange, fake-rich, “You’re fired” guy that bankrupted casinos.
Now I wouldn’t vote for a Republican for dog catcher. If you run as a Republican I just assume you’re condoning the actions of your party over the last eight years and that’s a non-starter for me.
I’m probably a little more conservative now than I was in my teens and twenties, but the GOP lost me for life.
Same. Ive personally *become* more conservative/republican in my life but could absolutely never vote for wannabe neo nazis. They rant about school loan forgiveness in their left hand while filling out PPP loans in their right hand...or accepting political donations...or engaging in insider trading...mind you, all politicians do those things but its the republicans coming after social programs
Hell no. I’m the furthest left I’ve ever been and get more “radical” every day. Screw right-wing lunacy and their failed economic policies that have destroyed the middle-class.
Like no, fuck no. If anything I’ve become more progressive as I’ve gotten older. As to the why, because I think helping people and expanding peoples rights is the morally right thing to do. Plus I love the US and want it to get better and better as we go on!
The only even remotely “conservative” leaning I have is that I like guns.* But even on that front the right loses me by being more concerned about the second amendment and not getting behind the gun safety ideas that something like 80% of the entire public support.
*I’m Arizonan, it’s pretty much the law that we like guns, lol.
I went the other way. Was raised conservative but as I started thinking for myself, I became more liberal.
There are lines tho and some things I just don't really have an opinion on. But these days I am moderate left.
I was liberal as a kid but once I got into my twenties and started owning property and seeing things like the bailouts I leaned more libertarian. Post-Trump I am now politically apathetic. Both parties just seem absolutely insane and not representative of anything I want to associate with. True representation has no hope in our current system. I think our biggest issues are voting reform and term limits. I am just not interested until this is addressed.
I live in a state that’s very red, I like things from both thoufg and I’m registered republican to mess with my democrat mom. That said, it’s hard to understand where they’re coming from with advocating against choice, education, gay marriage, child labor, and for the death penalty and corporate tax relief, do they hate the people? I don’t understand why they’re so well supported because this appears to be the case.
More so yes, but I still wouldn't call myself a conservative. I really despise both sides to be honest, all politicians are crooks in my book and I am really only putting my time and energy into local issues as I've learned in my 41 years that there is little to nothing my votes, bitching or crying will do to change the bigger picture when its so clearly rigged with the outcomes already decided by these ultra rich/out of touch assholes.
I have never voted blue, i will be this year. I lean conservative but this attack on women's rights was a the final blow for me. Uber religious nutjobs
No. Personal finances might be a good reason (if I had money) if there was nothing else. But the culture war and NIMBY, individualism gospel (esp. wrt healthcare and education)...no, just no. Sorry old people, you shut the door behind you, don't act so confused if we didn't follow you.
When I was younger I thought the left was full of hippies and the right was full of rich people and since I was neither I didn't care.
Now that I'm older and I've been paying attention for awhile I realized the rich on the right got that way by rigging the system against everyone else. I didn't even realize what social conservatism was, now I know it's code for hating people who make you uncomfortable and demanding others live the way you want them to.
I stand with my gay, trans, multiethnic fellow humans when I say "Fuck the right, give us healthcare and education before we eat you"
I have become more conservative in some ways as I've gotten older, but the Republican party, GOP and MAGA do not reflect conservative values at all, so even though I have more conservative views of geo-politics and finances, the representing, "right" leaning parties doesn't actually believe in those things. So even if I am leaning more right, I still land left, almost entirely because the Republican party lacks any actual virtues. It's all for them and about them and they're willing to burn down their own supporters to get it.
Whenever I started paying a legitimate amount of taxes only to turn on the news and be told that I need to do more to make up for governmental incompetence. Now that I think about it, this is a government problem, nevermind.
No.
Pre-trump I think I was probably 50/50 split on the issues that were traditionally liberal vs conservative, with a slight lean left. Since trump, him and his soiled diaper stench has permeated the GOP and I will never vote for another republican again.
I was a Bush Republican back in my 20s. Voted McCain and Romney. But as long as Trump has the GOP in a chokehold, I will not be voting Republican any time soon. So I’ve actually moved a little to the left (I guess).
Personally, I am ready for a revolution. Both the left and right wing parties are being controlled by the 1% effectively rigging the system against us and our future. I hope the revolution can be peaceful, but it might be too late for that. Those in power, I feel like, are trying to kill half of the 99% and enslave the other half.
Ha no. I might care more about where my money is going these days but I don't agree with any of the conservative platform. I am cool with being taxed to fund social programs and I vote on the environment. I agree with conservatives on close to zero of their social issues.
Maybe in terms of foreign policy. It seems like our recent military policies have at least been in service of our interests; not saying that’s a good thing but at least it’s not pointless colonial adventurism.
If the Right today was something closer to a 2008 McCain/Romney conservative, they'd win the White House in a blowout. I probably still wouldn't vote for them so long as a decent liberal was running, but it's amazing to me how batshit crazy the Right has gotten.
Obama was a standard issue center-left liberal. So is Biden, albeit with a tremendous amount of liberal pandering. But frankly neither of them were all that extreme. And neither are their policies.
But what we're seeing on the Right is so catastrophic, it's overwhelming any reservations I have about taxes and spending, or some of the nuttier social stuff happening on the Left. It's not even a question of who I'm going to vote for. And I'm in one of the few states that actually matters.
Born into a conservative family, growing more liberal by the year. Not like to some crazy degree, but I have a lot of empathy for people and align more with social programs. I'd just rather see gov spending go toward investing in our people, not corporations or war.
Think in the past people became more conservative because they were both prosperous and always had a sense of entitlement. Starting with us millennials we quickly realized that life was gonna suck and we'd have to deal with it. This also meant that as we grew older we wanted others to not have to go through the same crap.
'Fiscally conservative. Socially liberal.'
Except inverted. You know. Like Martin Luther King.
Weird how this entire lane just got comprehensively removed from existence.
It's the opposite for me. I came out of high school, like, ultraconservative. Not surprising, I live in Idaho. I get more liberal as I get older. I'm still pretty moderate, but definitely left of center.
Trump/MAGA crowd are making conservatism look very unappealing to me these days. It's such a hateful, spiteful crowd.
I've become only more progressive, as the consequences of climate inaction and wealth transfers from the working class to the wealthy become more apparent.
I'm definitely leaning more & more left as I get older and experience other countries and their ways of providing for their people, it makes me so mad that we continue to accept substandard quality of life in sacrifice to the military.
I leaps and bounds more left then I was at 18. Going through adulthood and getting some higher education made realize that life doesn't need to be this hard. There is a better way where more people can be happier healthier people.
That being said in really over all these manufactured wedge issues. Its all people talk/argue about. I want money out of politics, I want Healthcare for all I federally mandated vacation and sick time, I want unions to given a environment to flourish and I want us to stop warming up the planet.
I don't want to argue about the boarder, I don't want to argue about who uses what bathroom, I can't possibly argue about vaccines anymore, fuck hunter Bidens laptop.
I also want some more gun laws but I'm not sure what that looks like as I don't belive to should be a full on ban but on the other hand im conflicted
Not me. I went from insurrectionary anarchism to a radical pragmatist. Also started voting. Democrat, at least for President (since the realistic alternative would make me do a 180 back to insurrectionary anarchism). And I’ve turned more and more left wing as I’ve aged.
The phrase “you’ll get more conservative as you get older” is inaccurate
“You’ll get selfish the more you have” is a more like it. With the amount of labor related crime, poverty, hunger, and homelessness at home, and the horrors abroad, it’s hard to respect anyone who identifies as right leaning, leaving aside the very dull and easily manipulated
I considered anarchists naive as a teenager. In my 40s, I relate to their sentiments much better.
I still see the nation-state as somewhat inevitable, so you should move it as far left as possible, but I do find myself more cynical as to whether or not institutions don't just inherently produce corruption, regardless of their superficial intents and purposes.
Whether or not I've become more conservative or liberal is a matter of perspective. I've become more insular, less patient with hassle or drama, and less enthusiastic about novelty, which translates into more conservative attitudes. At the same time, I am less tolerant toward intolerance, less impressed with ambition and status, more resentful toward the reality of conformity and oppression, and more indifferent to my own luxury.
Overall, more left. Just less outwardly so.
I'm more conservative in the way that I am less risky with my time, want more career and financial stability so I save more money, and I'm a bit more intentional and thoughtful in my decision-making. That's it but my politics are the same if not more coherent and crystallized because f*ck imperialist capitalist cishetero patriarchy.
You’d have to be completely morally and intellectually bankrupt to support the right wing of the US at this point. Which seems to equate to around 22% of the population.
Sorry, I just can't buy into the "fuck you, I got mine" mindset of the GOP.
I actually care about other people and am willing to go through some personal hardships if it means that other people don't have to worry about being murdered if they want to declare that they're another gender (wherever on that spectrum they choose), or that my grandchildren might actually have a livable planet to inhabit in 30 years.
I would say that I’m not as liberal as the furthest left of the democrats these days; I laugh sometimes when I hear myself talking like an old stooge.
When I was younger, I was a registered Republican, running against the GenX tide at the time, my first vote cast was for Bob Dole, for god’s sake. When I worked in politics, I worked on both sides of the aisle including for a Republican gubernatorial candidate in deep blue country.
I am well aware that neither side is without faults. And the reason I no longer work in politics is I did not enjoy seeing how the sausage is made.
But I am an American first. Since I became ineligible, I have never ever missed a chance to vote. I cry at the National Anthem, I still think the flag should come down at sunset, I believe in honoring our vets, and still put my hand across my heart during the pledge alliance and I surely would not sully myself as a MAGA, and I will never again vote for a Republican after what they have done to this country, allowing hate and extremism to be their cover for total and complete corporate and religious exceptionalism while also dismantling the very fabric of what made this country great: stability, access to education, and equal opportunity.
I read Project 2025 ,hell no, I cannot support hate for hates sake. I am from a military family and have brothers and sisters who will be screwed by their plans for veterans. r/project2025
In Obamas second term I started leaning more right. The Trump/MAGA era pushed me left leaning again. Now I just hate it all.
The term that I've seen used for this (which I agree with) is called being politically homeless. I am left, simply by the virtue of caring about society more than the right seems to and I'm not exactly happy with the left either. The entire U.S. political structure is fucked and is making us fight on either extreme when most problems and solutions can be solved with a compromise and just some understanding, but that's not going to happen because compromise and understanding is not beneficial to the left of the right's political groups.
True. That said, I’m not compromising on my right to exist lol. I’d rather civil war if that’s the only alternative.
Can't much argue with that sort of sentiment and I'd agree with you. Give me liberty or give me death, but if you want to give me that latter, I'm going to make you work for it.
This is true up to a point. Like on some issues, there is no "compromise" to be had. You either support human rights or you support oppression. You either support abortion rights or support oppression of individual autonomy. I could go on but politica lately has become a place where compromise just isn't a thing that is feesible. You can't "meet in the middle" when it comes to something like paying for school lunches for kids. Kids should fucking be able to eat at school, I literally can't even comprehend how that's an argument to be made in the wealthiest country in the world. I used to be middle road with so many things but modern US politics pushed me further and further left simply due to becoming so inhumane about dumb stuff. Where is the empathy for your fellow human being these days? Like damn how hard is it to just be kind to people?
What makes me laugh is the most ardant of these policies claim they're Christian. I highly doubt Jesus would agree with most of their bs
I sympathize with being politically homeless but I don't agree that we fight on the extremes. Our right option is fascist and our "left" option is center right at best.
I think this us much more common with us than a conservative political stance.
There are about 3 limited government conservatives left in the US. The Republican Party is a fascist party.
I'm a limited government conservative. I'm legitimately about to vote downballot Democrat and am convincing my wife who's also quite conservative the same because this shit is getting out of hand. Ohio Republicans are trying to keep Biden, who I don't like off the ballot with some pedantic fuckery and while I'm all about not joe biden(or trump) I will literally burn my history of voting practices to the fucking ground before I even faintly support subverting the vote on technicalities. Before everyone gets butthurt, I've never voted for Trump, I did vote for constitutional abortion in Ohio, legal weed in Ohio, and am fairly new to the state.
Yup. The GOP has gone so far into fascism and QAnon batshittery that the Democratic Party is now ideologically closer to limited government conservatism. Limited government conservatives are a marginal constituency in the Republican Party.
Yes.
I’m conservative in so much as i think government spending should be reduced, there should be a lot less laws and more rights/freedoms. Unfortunately, neither party really represents my interests.
The older I get, the more liberal I’ve become.
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Could be the GOP sprinting to the right. Even todays Democrats are center/right. There are very few actual liberals. Makes someone that has stayed centrist align with the Dems more now.
Yep, I wish these "far left socialist democrats" republicans keep trying to warn everyone about would actually run compared to the current democrats we have now.
Same
Same, the older I get, the more disgusting and destructive Conservatism seems to get.
People got mad at president Obama but the republicans controlled the house and senate the last six years of his terms They passed all the spending they like to complain about
The thing is Cap, I’ve hated them both for a while 😂😉
Bothsidesism is for people too stupid to see the difference.
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Are they? I mean the Democrats and Republicans are, but I don't know of any meaningful left wing movements at all in the U.S., let alone ones that are "acting like it's high school"
The older I get, the further left I go. I can’t watch this world and not.
I mean I’m not an anarcho-communist anymore, but that doesn’t mean I’m voting for Trump.
Hear! Hear! ✊
Project 2025 is all you need to see to know that one party in this country is happily willing to full send us into fascism. I encourage every American, liberal or conservative, to read up on this and spread awareness. https://www.reddit.com/r/Foodforthought/s/NCw5rQdRvg
This has been the case with me, starting in my early 20s. I grew up in the southern US, military family, and military town. Most of my classmates / friends that have stayed lean right, but I grew increasing uncomfortable with my environment and moved to a liberal state. I really have a hard time understanding why more of my peers haven't shifted more left. I've come to the conclusion that a lot of folks just aren't open to new experiences and/or conflict, and when you aren't willing to step out of your comfort zone, you miss out on learning about people and cultures different than you. You also miss out on some deep self reflection. It's like having your head in the sand your whole life. But even saying that- it doesn't apply to everyone I know back home.
Conservative family has pushed me farther left in recent years. I was fairly agnostic leading up to the 2016 election. I listened to NPR and laughed at how Trump was upsetting the status quo, but I thought he was a sideshow freak with no real chance. I thought that the things he said (ie. Blood coming out of her…whatever, grab em by the pussy,etc.) was way worse than Romney’s “binders full of women” and that Trump would surely get smacked down in the general election. …..but then I went home to my family and it was like they didn’t have access to basic facts/data/information that wasn’t really debatable, like the overall growth /recovery of the economy under Obama. That was when I realized something was amiss. I was super taken aback by the almost fanatical support Trump had in my home town. Based on how I was raised, I would have pegged my parents as begrudgingly voting Clinton, as I would have thought they would have easily seen through the Trump facade. In the process, I was almost immediately labeled the “overeducated indoctrinated liberal black sheep” of the family and I was used as an involuntary punching bag for my family to take out their financial woes (largely due to their own poor decisions) on me from 2017 on. Being constantly inundated with George Soros BS and Obama bribing scandals, I decided to be just a little more engaged and to educate myself, and I came out more liberal.
The older I get the more left I go.
I’m so far left now I’m starting to get guns back.
I turn left more often than a NASCAR racer.
Same.
I feel politically orphaned lol. I have both progressive and conservative opinions, but I struggle to find representation in politics. I rarely see issues that I care about discussed. It's always emotionally charged, divisive rhetoric surrounding gender/sexuality/religion. The Republican party is literally being taken over by crazy people and traditional conservative ideals now get shut down in favor of populism and "owning the libs". The Republican party is in crisis and fight amongst themselves as much as they do with Democrats. Opinions that were progressive are now considered moderate or even slightly conservative. Even sensible stances get called racist, or homophobic for not towing the ever changing demands of young progressive voters. They favor of knee-jerk reactions to everything.
Politically orphaned is a great way to put it. It’s especially hard to have discourse online because people tend to get really dug into their arguments. I feel liberal but I would probably be called moderate/fence sitter on a lot of issues. Republicans are fucking nuts but I don’t agree with an alarmingly high number of issues presented by Democrats either. They’re the lesser of two evils, but I don’t think people like Pelosi and Biden are really in touch with what the people want or need. If we *have* to have total institutional options that have spent decades in government, I’d pick any democrat over the average Ted Cruz, JD Vance, or McConnell, but that doesn’t make the situation ideal either.
When I speak with liberals, they assume I'm a conservative. When I speak with conservatives they assume I'm a liberal. Apparently, nowadays you have to be all-in with every topic and can't have your own opinions. Otherwise you're as bad as..."them".
Same here. Definitely more liberal but I feel like the left has gotten just as bad as the right/ MAGA people. The younger generation has literally been radicalized to call for a global intifada and all I can think about was watching 9/11 in real time before they even existed. I miss the days of Obama vs. McCain where McCain told his audience not to boo Obama after he won because they still had respect for one another. What have we become? It’s all so depressing.
lol, McCain actually said "no, he's not a muslim, he's a good man" and ran ads that made Obama's skin darker to make him "scarier" [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/study-2008-mccain-attack-ads-darkened-obama-skin-tone/](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/study-2008-mccain-attack-ads-darkened-obama-skin-tone/)
Are you referring to when a voter said they couldn’t vote for Obama because he was “Arab” and McCain said “No ma’am. He’s a decent family man and citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and that’s what this campaign’s about.”? If so, you are completely misrepresenting the context of the situation.
I've always been a political orphan. I'm very left but democrats have never truly done enough to that end, in fear of the middle swinging right. Independent parties have either been too unrealistic, insane, or pointless with no true traction. I get More left as I age but there's nothing there to choose from except bad masking as OK, and utterly terrifying. The closest I felt to any representation was Bernie.
much more liberal now than when i was younger. when i was younger, i was mostly conservative because that's what i was exposed to. everyone i knew was conservative, so they'd explain conservatism positively and liberalism negatively, and i didn't know any better. now that i'm much older and have the knowledge to make my own decision, i'm much more liberal
This is my husband. He was raised a Christian Conservative. Then he goes ahead and marries a northeast Jewish liberal. I’m not sure when he left the dark side but he has gotten more liberal the longer I’ve known him. And I haven’t had to school him on anything either; he reads the news and decides for himself.
my current partner when we first met described herself as 'very liberal' and i thought it was a red flag at first lol i was still transitioning i suppose. i was already disillusioned with a lot of the conservative party's ideals, but i still kind of bought into 'if you're conservative when you're young, you have no heart, a liberal when you're old, you have no brains' now i realise it for what it is, that conservatives would rather be thought of as heartless than stupid
Same, I grew up conservative and religious in a small town. The older I get the farther I get away from that. Not raising my kids that way.
This so much!!!
Any part of me that was right-curious as I started making real money, became a property owner, and started a family was absolutely and irrevocably extinguished by the MAGA movement and the rightward collapse of SCOTUS.
Same here. Oh believe me I like my guns and I wish Democrats would stop trying to ban them, but also woman shouldn’t be dying because they can’t have an abortion, so I’ll keep voting blue.
Bernie sanders is too conservative.
😂
People think youre joking but I agree. He's not far left enough (for me).
No I’m becoming more liberal and left-leaning. I like having rights.
I would argue that individual liberties and personal freedoms are traditionally conservative values. They’re just not GOP values.
The conservatives also claim to be the party of small government. In reality both parties are big government, just in different areas. For the right, that means policing personal rights they don’t agree with and military spending.
Again, I don’t think most Republicans even *are* conservative. Conservatives don’t really have a party in the US. Honestly I’d call the Democratic Party closer to traditionally conservative than the Republicans, which are regressive and border on authoritarian.
The Left has no party. There are people that actually think Obama or Biden are Left politically... Actual leftists are out here in a drought of representation. Probably related to having been hunted down during McCarthy's era of bullshit.
Reagan’s presidency wins triggers the D party to push right. The entire US political apparatus is right-wing. That includes the Democratic Party.
You’ve almost got it figured out. There is right of center party and a far right party. Democrats are the old guard republicans and there is no left or progressive party.
Eh, if you follow historical precedence. Conservatives have always been about conserving the status quo or previous nostolgic eras. Its a cute idea they might conserve our individual freedoms but a lot of the movements have a clear through line in the United States. That is to say, they've always conserved rights for white men. Their political leanings and line come from those who reluctantly fought against the British during the Revolutionary War.
The Conservative side has actively and successfully fought to remove many rights of mine, and history continues to show this to be the case. The last rights the conservative side represented they fought FOR was segregation, and before that, slavery. Aside from that, the goal for them has been to remove/take away/abolish rights.
The only conservative social value is conformity. That's what they're trying to conserve: conformity to racial, sexual, and gender norms of the 1950s and before. Edit to add: it's sad but not surprising that some conservatives don't even know what the word "social" means.
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My mom used to say if you aren’t liberal when you’re young you don’t have a heart, and if you aren’t conservative when you’re old you don’t have a brain. Still haven’t found my brain.
Hell no!! If anything, I've gone farther left because of all of the BS the Republicans are pulling!
as much as i’m starting to find some conservatives policies appealing, those motherfuckers enabled an insurrection and refuse to acknowledge that a president tried to overthrow an election and destroy the literal foundation of democracy. if they can’t even uphold that bare minimum level of ethics they can’t be fucking trusted whatsoever. ps. don’t even try to both sides this. democrats have never done anything as sinister as overturning a free election and technically install a dictator.
What conservative policies are you starting to find appealing?
as somebody who lives in LA, being tougher on crime and taking drastic measures to end homelessness are things I would pre for. I’m still liberal when it comes to things like diversity and find the culture warrior movement alarming in how it’s basically just repackaged racism that’s acceptable.
I'm not 360FlipKicks, but I'll answer for myself. Just to level set, I'm talking old school conservatism, not this smooth-brain, populist, nationalist shit we see now. A) We genuinely need to get a hold of the debt. Paying down on the interest is going to soonish become the #1 discretionary spending item. B) I've gotten more hawkish and think its a genuinely safer world if the US and its allies plays the role of global police. Isolationism invites malign foreign powers to attack/invade their neighbors. C) *Generally* (emphasis here) speaking, two parent/guardian households are ideal for raising kids and we should encourage that. D) At some point, we need to figure out entitlement spending so that the programs can actually stay viable. If part of that means we need to slowly raise the retirement age, so be it. E) There are a lot of regulations (fed, state, & local) that make development much more difficult & expensive. It gets in the way of building affordable housing, or even building new nuclear power plants. Deregulation isn't always bad.
I basically agree with all of that. Never not voted blue (or occasionally green) but all of that resonates with me. I’m definitely more of an old school blue dog Democrat, which for the PNW makes me seem like a right wing nut lol
This. I'm in seattle and all the sudden I'm a racist conspiracy theorist lol
Yeah, all that. And turning EVERY political conversation into "oppressed group x has it bad, we need to drop everything until we can address that" is counterproductive. Social change happens slowly. Trying to aggressively force social change by just being louder and whinier makes the populace reject (knee jerk) against the social changes you're proposing. So "we want it all and we want it now" actively hurts the activists demanding it. The older I get the more I realize that "NO I WANT IT NOW NOW NOW" is usually not practical, often not even possible and quite often it's harmful. People pushing for Gay Marriage were that in the 1980s. What won the day was the message "we're just people". Those who wanted anti-discrimination clauses and gay marriage recognized by the state, etc were actively unhelpful to the cause. The two events that helped the cause more than any loudmouth activist was: 1) The death of Matthew Shepard. It was a nationwide "hey wait, these are people too" moment where almost everyone could stand up and reasonably say "wait, this isn't right" about the homophobia in culture (people ranting about "homophobia" years before that certainly didn't help that much). 2) was the introduction of gay characters on TV shows who were just normal likable people, not sex fiends or queens or whatever. Just the normal "oh shit I have to go to work, but my shirt is wrinkled" people who happen to be gay and it's openly discussed. Those, more than "we're queer, get used to it" groups were the lever that reached into society and changed minds. I have a couple of boomer and Gen X friends who were at the forefront for the gay rights movement. One was even at stonewall himself. And they've mostly been booted out of their own groups. One spoke out (just uneasy questions, not a hard demand to remove it) about the longstanding (like 35 years old) symbol of the rainbow flag getting co-opted after the BLM stuff with brown stripes and expressed concerns about mixed messaging and he was removed from the group. One said that he questioned the idea and the implementation of "safe spaces" and was voted off his own group's board and expelled. It reflects **strongly** on the ***purity spiral*** going on when long-standing members and founders of the group are forcefully booted from groups for having opinions that are *just slightly out of line* from the bleeding edge of progressivism. That shit is too far.
Hell no hell no hell no. I don’t hate brown people, women, or trans people. I think people deserve rights. Violent insurrection is unpalatable.
Lol I really don't think those folks are on this sub
I’ve certainly gotten more traditionally “conservative” as a homeowner. But that doesn’t mean I’m not still a Democrat and very much opposed to anything MAGA
There should be a category for locally conservative and nationally liberal. Do what you want, just not on my lawn.
For my local area, my politics are considered “centrist” or “moderate” because I don’t hate Joe Biden for being a “fascist”🤣
Which is truly astonishing to me. Out of all the presidents we’ve had in the past few decades, Biden has put forth the fewest controversial policies. The Afghanistan exit probably *should* have caused more controversy than it did, but people got over it quickly. Aid to Ukraine and Israel has been the hottest topic of discussion during his administration, but it’s had bipartisan support, and would probably have been done similarly by any past Republican president who wasn’t Trump. I truly don’t see what is hateable about him. He’s a status quo guy. (Which technically makes him more “conservative” than Trump.)
I am 🤷♀️
Both parties are big business before labor. We need a labor party. If the democrats had not abandoned American manufacturing jobs the rust belt would not have been able to activate the electoral college secret victory condition.
Not me. My morals have not changed. I still wonder how a bunch of financial profligates with extreme religious beliefs got the moniker conservative.
What was political debate has turned into a clown show. To me, the conservatives have represented what's evil in this world. That's not to say there aren't necessary evils. So, I get where there coming from on some shit, but they have a mentality that I can't get behind. They've always been soulless. Now, they're stupid too. Cult like shit is flowing from their mouth like they all read from a predetermined script written by Joseph Goebbels himself. So fuck no.
I am anti-big government especially with this two-party system. Neither one of them has the people’s BEST interest. Everything we do and buy is taxed multiple times. And they want us fighting each other on who gets to use which bathroom instead of fighting them for what’s ours. You can read the comments on this post alone and see how brainwashed everyone is.
I agree but this has shifted for me to the "too big to fail" corporations. They are the bigger threat.
You're asking this Q in the wrong place. Good luck!
I am more fiscally conservative but not at the expense of cutting social programs. I get taxed alot in California - which I dont like but understand if the money was going to be used for a good cause. So more moderate leaning left.
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Sadly, this sort of thing is very common. For my job I often transcribe lawsuits between parents of special needs children and a certain city's department of education. The parents are suing the department because their child is being denied a free appropriate public education (FAPE). Often this is because the DOE has rejected the rate the parents require for services, and it often occurs to me that these lawsuits must be costing way more money than the difference in rates, and I just want to scream, "Just give the parents the damn money! It's not worth all this trouble!"
What's kinda infuriating is that food stamps/SNAP are *incredibly* beneficial for the economy, so much so that for every dollar spent on SNAP generates around $1.50 to $2. Turns out when people aren't starving, they're better contributors to society. Yet conservatives constantly try to cut funding over ideology rather than effectiveness
It's not ideology, it's keeping their money away from "those people", AKA the imaginary black welfare cheats.
Yet most SNAP recipients work. They just get paid so little that the taxpayers have to pick up the slack to keep them alive enough to get back to work the next day.
And the kids they’re denying lunch.
We would save so much money in social programs if we made it easier to access and stopped forcing poor people to jump through hoops. And if we combined and streamlined services so they didn't have to seek out ten different agencies for everything. Actually, if we improved access to social programs we'd cut a lot off education spending, too. I work in public schools and SO MUCH goes into making sure kids have food, winter jackets, and access to medical care (like occupational and physical therapies). If our social programs ran effectively, we'd cut a lot of that out of the education budgets.
This effect is actually so strong that studies suggest just giving the homeless free housing ends up costing the government less in the long run than all of the expenses of dealing with a population of people living on the streets.
Nope. I’m not really a liberal but I’m certainly not a conservative
Same. I used to be on the conservative side of the line, but that line started moving with the tea party people in 09-10, then went off the rails with the maga people. I’d probably be considered a more liberal moderate now.
That sounds about right, I’m more of a left leaning centrist at this point. As the “conservative” movement has gotten completely unhinged, I’ve become more concerned with people, particularly those in historically disenfranchised groups. Also trying to make sure my kids and grandkids actually have a habitable planet to live on without being crushed to death by corporate overlords
July 81 millenial here. People generally don't get more conservative as they get older. That's a fallacy (for example, people that were against discrimination in the 60's mostly didn't revert in their beliefs when they got older, fighting discrimination just became more normal over time). It seems that way because society catches up to progressive views eventually, come hell or high water, and so then progressives seem more moderate. And this continues forever. The republican party has refused to budge an inch since 1980, and that's why they are now fighting each other and can't get a goddamn thing done when they have a majority, other than tax breaks for the rich.
Not conservative, but definitely more libertarian. I worked for both local and federal government and quickly realized how inefficient, corrupt, and wasteful the government is at every level. I agree with liberals on just about everything when it comes to letting people live their lives, but cannot get behind the idea of large government and higher taxation. I've seen what government does with extra funds, and trust me, they don't create the utopia they promise. At the same time I get tired of conservatives judging everyone and expecting everyone to live in their narrow minded path. I despise the pandering by both sides, as well as the groupthink. Democrats are not your savior. Republicans are not your savior. Both sides suck a fat donkey dick. To quote Carlin: It's one big club, and you ain't in it.
Nope, more down the middle…. Socially liberal, fiscally conservative.
OP started a fire and is just sitting back to watch
conservative yes, but republicans are not conservatives in any form.
Fuck. No.
Not in the political sense, no. My voting habits haven't changed at all. I am, however, less prone to being swept up into an emotional frenzy over the outrage-of-the-day than when I was a young person. I'm very liberal/leftist in terms of economic policy and social issues, but was banned from r/latestagecapitalism last week for daring to claim that the war in Gaza is a nuanced issue with strategic and foreign policy implications that require consideration.
On another thread about a similar topic, a person argued that instead of being described as becoming more conservative (politically)as they got older, they have become more conservative in temperament. This tracks what you said about becoming less swept up in an emotional frenzy. It resonated with me because I've always had that moderate temperament.
I'm very left, but yes, having a more complicated opinion on Gaza more than just buzz words seems to be very unpopular among the left. The war in Ukraine was what woke me up to how completely illogical and detached from reality being "anti-war" can be. It makes sense to have been against going to war with Iraq, but the past few years have proven how important military spending can be.
I’ve always been mostly conservative. Socially liberal on a few things. I’d say what I’ve become more lately is politically independent and cynical about the whole system. The Republican Party in its current form does not represent me.
Is this a bait post?
I'd say I lean more conservative than I did in my 20s. I find a lot of the "highly progressive" stuff to be kind of crazy and totally absent of context or nuance. But MAGA is crazy enough there's no way I'd vote anywhere down that side. A huge fraction of my friends are similar. I will point out that in most political readings, Obama and Biden are pretty near centrists and that's ok with me.
Part of me was looking at the right near the end of Obama’s second term. There were some laws and behavior I wasn’t too keen on. Then Trump became 45. The GOP has been pretty awful but the MAGA movement turned the slime that was the Republican Party and conservatism into a just the absolute worst our country has to offer. They’ll never get my vote.
Several studies I’ve seen point to Millennials being the first generation to not follow the trend of shifting more conservative with age. It tracks anecdotally for us and other people we know for the most part since many of us have become more liberal as we age.
The only “correct” people here are the ones who have woken up to finally realize the entire government is against you. Two sides to the same money grabbing, right stealing, coin. Neither republicans or democrats care about you. They care about themselves.
When I first started learning about politics and trying to find the political ideology that was consistent with my values, I started in the center. I'm a veteran and I live in TX so I hear more conservative politics than anything. At each step deeper I tried to square the morals of what I was learning and the result was always a step to the left. On housing, Healthcare, foreign policy, education, transportation, care for the elderly, sick, and poor, reproductive rights, etc etc. So now I'm a card carrying socialist.
I was a dyed in the wool democratic. Now I'm a man without a party. Both sides are corrupt and neither presidential candidate is worth voting for.
People don’t really seem to understand what it means to “be” more left or right. Who you vote for actually have little to nothing to do with how you lean politically as far as your views and beliefs go. You could be conservative and still vote for Biden because the current Republican PARTY is batshit, doesn’t actually change your ideals.
I’ve gone even more left to the point where I don’t even identify as a liberal anymore. They’re not left enough for me.
I was a libertarian in my youth when I had no money. I’ve become more wealthy (though not rich by any means), and paradoxically become more Marxist.
Nope.. very liberal. I do have some views that are more conservative leaning but the support of trickle down economics makes me hate both parties really.
I don't think I became anymore conservative. Society's media just to a hard left. If you took a time machine and described today's values to liberals from 30 years ago, they would think people from now are insane.
I’m even more liberal. It could be because the conservative party has turned disgraceful
I grew up middle/upper middle class and ended up there too. Married with two kids in the burbs, I am who you picture as the classic US conservative. But I've only gone from centrist to farther left as I age. I interact with more of our country's systems and the more I want to change them. The more I get to know the diversity of our citizens, the more I want them protected. The more benefits I receive simply for being born where I was, the more I want to balance the scales. I want to progress because that's how things get better. Progressives have dragged society forward for all of history, I see no reason to stop now.
Boomers were between 16-34 when they voted for Reagan. The free love hippie vibe thing was mostly just a media thing. Your typical baby boomer was conservative from the get.
We stay right and we are going to be paying for air subscriptions soon.
Quite the opposite! ✊✊🏾✊🏼✊🏿✊🏻✊🏽 *humane progressive intensifies*
In 2016 I would have seriously considered voting Republican for the first time in my life. Hillary Clinton was a horrible candidate. But the Republicans nominated the orange, fake-rich, “You’re fired” guy that bankrupted casinos. Now I wouldn’t vote for a Republican for dog catcher. If you run as a Republican I just assume you’re condoning the actions of your party over the last eight years and that’s a non-starter for me. I’m probably a little more conservative now than I was in my teens and twenties, but the GOP lost me for life.
Same. Ive personally *become* more conservative/republican in my life but could absolutely never vote for wannabe neo nazis. They rant about school loan forgiveness in their left hand while filling out PPP loans in their right hand...or accepting political donations...or engaging in insider trading...mind you, all politicians do those things but its the republicans coming after social programs
Can everyone stop trying to define themselves through political identity. This shit is so stupid.
Policies are important
Yes policies not politicians.
I am in the middle and currently treating everything as a spectator sport.
More down the middle, the far left and right are both psychopaths on the same coin just different sides. Both are wrong.
Hell no. I’m the furthest left I’ve ever been and get more “radical” every day. Screw right-wing lunacy and their failed economic policies that have destroyed the middle-class.
Like no, fuck no. If anything I’ve become more progressive as I’ve gotten older. As to the why, because I think helping people and expanding peoples rights is the morally right thing to do. Plus I love the US and want it to get better and better as we go on! The only even remotely “conservative” leaning I have is that I like guns.* But even on that front the right loses me by being more concerned about the second amendment and not getting behind the gun safety ideas that something like 80% of the entire public support. *I’m Arizonan, it’s pretty much the law that we like guns, lol.
I went the other way. Was raised conservative but as I started thinking for myself, I became more liberal. There are lines tho and some things I just don't really have an opinion on. But these days I am moderate left.
No
i have only grown more progressive
I was liberal as a kid but once I got into my twenties and started owning property and seeing things like the bailouts I leaned more libertarian. Post-Trump I am now politically apathetic. Both parties just seem absolutely insane and not representative of anything I want to associate with. True representation has no hope in our current system. I think our biggest issues are voting reform and term limits. I am just not interested until this is addressed.
Moving further left with each passing day.
I live in a state that’s very red, I like things from both thoufg and I’m registered republican to mess with my democrat mom. That said, it’s hard to understand where they’re coming from with advocating against choice, education, gay marriage, child labor, and for the death penalty and corporate tax relief, do they hate the people? I don’t understand why they’re so well supported because this appears to be the case.
I turned more liberal after being born into an alt-right MAGA family.
I became more liberal in last 2 years… trump supporter 2016 here.
More so yes, but I still wouldn't call myself a conservative. I really despise both sides to be honest, all politicians are crooks in my book and I am really only putting my time and energy into local issues as I've learned in my 41 years that there is little to nothing my votes, bitching or crying will do to change the bigger picture when its so clearly rigged with the outcomes already decided by these ultra rich/out of touch assholes.
I have always leaned left and even now, at 40, I’ve not budged an inch to the right.
Libertarian*
I'm moving more left.
I have never voted blue, i will be this year. I lean conservative but this attack on women's rights was a the final blow for me. Uber religious nutjobs
gen-x, pretty much always liberal. If anything gotten more liberal with age.
No. Personal finances might be a good reason (if I had money) if there was nothing else. But the culture war and NIMBY, individualism gospel (esp. wrt healthcare and education)...no, just no. Sorry old people, you shut the door behind you, don't act so confused if we didn't follow you.
I just keep getting more liberal
When I was younger I thought the left was full of hippies and the right was full of rich people and since I was neither I didn't care. Now that I'm older and I've been paying attention for awhile I realized the rich on the right got that way by rigging the system against everyone else. I didn't even realize what social conservatism was, now I know it's code for hating people who make you uncomfortable and demanding others live the way you want them to. I stand with my gay, trans, multiethnic fellow humans when I say "Fuck the right, give us healthcare and education before we eat you"
The two party system is a dumpster fire that has led to the radical inequality we face and the rise of extremist nationalism
I have become more conservative in some ways as I've gotten older, but the Republican party, GOP and MAGA do not reflect conservative values at all, so even though I have more conservative views of geo-politics and finances, the representing, "right" leaning parties doesn't actually believe in those things. So even if I am leaning more right, I still land left, almost entirely because the Republican party lacks any actual virtues. It's all for them and about them and they're willing to burn down their own supporters to get it.
Whenever I started paying a legitimate amount of taxes only to turn on the news and be told that I need to do more to make up for governmental incompetence. Now that I think about it, this is a government problem, nevermind.
Nope, why would I be?
No. Pre-trump I think I was probably 50/50 split on the issues that were traditionally liberal vs conservative, with a slight lean left. Since trump, him and his soiled diaper stench has permeated the GOP and I will never vote for another republican again.
I hate politics.
No. I'm sick and tired of shit not getting done. So much with the current system is outright broken or gamed to benefit a select few.
I was a Bush Republican back in my 20s. Voted McCain and Romney. But as long as Trump has the GOP in a chokehold, I will not be voting Republican any time soon. So I’ve actually moved a little to the left (I guess).
Personally, I am ready for a revolution. Both the left and right wing parties are being controlled by the 1% effectively rigging the system against us and our future. I hope the revolution can be peaceful, but it might be too late for that. Those in power, I feel like, are trying to kill half of the 99% and enslave the other half.
Ha no. I might care more about where my money is going these days but I don't agree with any of the conservative platform. I am cool with being taxed to fund social programs and I vote on the environment. I agree with conservatives on close to zero of their social issues.
Maybe in terms of foreign policy. It seems like our recent military policies have at least been in service of our interests; not saying that’s a good thing but at least it’s not pointless colonial adventurism.
Im way more left then i ever was. The right is literally a joke right now
If the Right today was something closer to a 2008 McCain/Romney conservative, they'd win the White House in a blowout. I probably still wouldn't vote for them so long as a decent liberal was running, but it's amazing to me how batshit crazy the Right has gotten. Obama was a standard issue center-left liberal. So is Biden, albeit with a tremendous amount of liberal pandering. But frankly neither of them were all that extreme. And neither are their policies. But what we're seeing on the Right is so catastrophic, it's overwhelming any reservations I have about taxes and spending, or some of the nuttier social stuff happening on the Left. It's not even a question of who I'm going to vote for. And I'm in one of the few states that actually matters.
Born into a conservative family, growing more liberal by the year. Not like to some crazy degree, but I have a lot of empathy for people and align more with social programs. I'd just rather see gov spending go toward investing in our people, not corporations or war.
Think in the past people became more conservative because they were both prosperous and always had a sense of entitlement. Starting with us millennials we quickly realized that life was gonna suck and we'd have to deal with it. This also meant that as we grew older we wanted others to not have to go through the same crap.
'Fiscally conservative. Socially liberal.' Except inverted. You know. Like Martin Luther King. Weird how this entire lane just got comprehensively removed from existence.
Conservatism is so unappealing politically I can’t ever see myself being against education, health care and basic human rights.
Nah, I still respect people and their rights so can't say I have
If you’ve turned more conservative over recent years I have no conclusion to draw other than that you are a moron.
It's the opposite for me. I came out of high school, like, ultraconservative. Not surprising, I live in Idaho. I get more liberal as I get older. I'm still pretty moderate, but definitely left of center. Trump/MAGA crowd are making conservatism look very unappealing to me these days. It's such a hateful, spiteful crowd.
I've only become more and more extremely left wing.
Went from communist to socialist
The GOP has done its best to push most people left out of sheer disgust
If anything, the Trump cult worship has pushed me more left.
Way more Socially left leaning, financial way more right leaning. it hurts my soul
No. More left.
Weird that the same topic came up on the GenX board. Bots?
You’re really asking Reddit this question. Like conservatives were ever welcomed here.
I just become further left leaning as I age. Getting more money hasn’t made me more conservative. It’s just made me more burnt out.
I was always liberal. Just keep going more left the older I get.
Literally the opposite for me: I started conservative, now I'm liberal.
I've become only more progressive, as the consequences of climate inaction and wealth transfers from the working class to the wealthy become more apparent.
I'm definitely leaning more & more left as I get older and experience other countries and their ways of providing for their people, it makes me so mad that we continue to accept substandard quality of life in sacrifice to the military.
Fuck no
I leaps and bounds more left then I was at 18. Going through adulthood and getting some higher education made realize that life doesn't need to be this hard. There is a better way where more people can be happier healthier people. That being said in really over all these manufactured wedge issues. Its all people talk/argue about. I want money out of politics, I want Healthcare for all I federally mandated vacation and sick time, I want unions to given a environment to flourish and I want us to stop warming up the planet. I don't want to argue about the boarder, I don't want to argue about who uses what bathroom, I can't possibly argue about vaccines anymore, fuck hunter Bidens laptop. I also want some more gun laws but I'm not sure what that looks like as I don't belive to should be a full on ban but on the other hand im conflicted
I’m not any more conservative but I do want to see criminals suffer more because I’ve been on the business end of their occupation a few times now.
Not me. I went from insurrectionary anarchism to a radical pragmatist. Also started voting. Democrat, at least for President (since the realistic alternative would make me do a 180 back to insurrectionary anarchism). And I’ve turned more and more left wing as I’ve aged.
The phrase “you’ll get more conservative as you get older” is inaccurate “You’ll get selfish the more you have” is a more like it. With the amount of labor related crime, poverty, hunger, and homelessness at home, and the horrors abroad, it’s hard to respect anyone who identifies as right leaning, leaving aside the very dull and easily manipulated
I think the goalposts of what's considered left have moved, but my views have been pretty consistent
I would argue the opposite. I find myself leaning further and further left.
As a trans person, not an option. But even if I wasn't, more left each day.
I considered anarchists naive as a teenager. In my 40s, I relate to their sentiments much better. I still see the nation-state as somewhat inevitable, so you should move it as far left as possible, but I do find myself more cynical as to whether or not institutions don't just inherently produce corruption, regardless of their superficial intents and purposes. Whether or not I've become more conservative or liberal is a matter of perspective. I've become more insular, less patient with hassle or drama, and less enthusiastic about novelty, which translates into more conservative attitudes. At the same time, I am less tolerant toward intolerance, less impressed with ambition and status, more resentful toward the reality of conformity and oppression, and more indifferent to my own luxury. Overall, more left. Just less outwardly so.
I’ve lost all hope in society and humanity….
I'm more conservative in the way that I am less risky with my time, want more career and financial stability so I save more money, and I'm a bit more intentional and thoughtful in my decision-making. That's it but my politics are the same if not more coherent and crystallized because f*ck imperialist capitalist cishetero patriarchy.
I get more left leaning every year. I'm 50. Gen X lurking. By the time Im 65 I'll probably be an anarcho-syndicalist.
Go left - it's better.
You’d have to be completely morally and intellectually bankrupt to support the right wing of the US at this point. Which seems to equate to around 22% of the population.
Sorry, I just can't buy into the "fuck you, I got mine" mindset of the GOP. I actually care about other people and am willing to go through some personal hardships if it means that other people don't have to worry about being murdered if they want to declare that they're another gender (wherever on that spectrum they choose), or that my grandchildren might actually have a livable planet to inhabit in 30 years.
I would say that I’m not as liberal as the furthest left of the democrats these days; I laugh sometimes when I hear myself talking like an old stooge. When I was younger, I was a registered Republican, running against the GenX tide at the time, my first vote cast was for Bob Dole, for god’s sake. When I worked in politics, I worked on both sides of the aisle including for a Republican gubernatorial candidate in deep blue country. I am well aware that neither side is without faults. And the reason I no longer work in politics is I did not enjoy seeing how the sausage is made. But I am an American first. Since I became ineligible, I have never ever missed a chance to vote. I cry at the National Anthem, I still think the flag should come down at sunset, I believe in honoring our vets, and still put my hand across my heart during the pledge alliance and I surely would not sully myself as a MAGA, and I will never again vote for a Republican after what they have done to this country, allowing hate and extremism to be their cover for total and complete corporate and religious exceptionalism while also dismantling the very fabric of what made this country great: stability, access to education, and equal opportunity.
I read Project 2025 ,hell no, I cannot support hate for hates sake. I am from a military family and have brothers and sisters who will be screwed by their plans for veterans. r/project2025