RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (Full Version)

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juliaoceania -> RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (3/19/2007 6:05:16 PM)

Thanks for sharing that Vendaval, I am aware of the problems you have had with health insurance.

Something that I have noticed is that those who have a more humanitarian view of the world have often survived one or two trials by fire. It is just something I have noticed.



Vendaval -> RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (3/19/2007 6:09:24 PM)

You are welcome, julia.  I feel deep sadness when you share
what happened to your father.   Words cannot express. 



juliaoceania -> RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (3/19/2007 6:14:35 PM)

Just one of those trials by fire.

We also have a multicultural family. I am very proud of that.



littlesarbonn -> RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (3/19/2007 7:22:06 PM)

My political views completely changed right about the 4th year into working on my Ph.D. in political science. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't do it again because it was so much nicer understanding the world of politics without actually understanding the world of politics. What I find fascinating is how many people actually think they understand because they think they're well read or watch a lot of news. I find myself no longer desiring an argument with people on politics because people almost always think with surface level analysis in which they believe is second and third level analysis because they're convinced they know more than they do because they stopped listening a long time ago.



subrob1967 -> RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (3/19/2007 7:25:09 PM)

I grew up on the south side of Chicago, and I was a Dem until I realized just how corrupt the Democratic regime that runs Chicago really is. Serving in the military during the Clinton/Bush1 years kind of confirmed my anti-liberal bias. As I grew older I became more conservative, but I'm not a Repub, I'm a registered Inde.

I vote for the person I feel can best serve his/her constituents, regardless of political affiliation, but I've come to the conclusion that I'd rather not vote, than vote for a liberal.




Dtesmoac -> RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (3/19/2007 8:04:44 PM)

As a child vaguely remembering all the lights being off because of stikes in the coal industry and power industry.
There being no sugar because of some strike affecting the sugar industry.
Shortage of bread becasue of some strike affecting food manufacturing.
Being the only household on the street without a television, a phone or a car.
Listening to Arthur Scargill and thinking pillock, adapt with the changing world or join the dinosaurs.
Woking in heavy industry with a high number of very inteligent but under educated people who if given the chance could have been very successful, and finding out many of them were very happy with what they had.
Working in a variety of countries and realising that what I think is blindingly obvious and standard accepted facts, are often from other cultural standpoint radically subversive or on other occasions boringly conservative.




pollux -> RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (3/19/2007 8:51:41 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Vendaval

Greetings A/all,
 
What life experiences have shaped your political point of view?
How much do you participate in the political process?
Have your viewpoints changed over the years or remained
constant?
 
Please, this is an open discussion question, no flaming or
personal attacks! 


1.  Backpacking across the Middle East in 1999, and 9/11/2001.
2.  I used to not participate at all.  Now I vote in every election, and I am a poll monitor.
3.  My viewpoints have changed significantly.



pollux -> RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (3/19/2007 8:54:08 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Vendaval

The medical insurance agent I talked to informed me
that once you are turned down for medical coverage,
by any insurer for any reason, you are black-listed by
the entire medical insurance industry in the US for the
rest of your life.  Getting medical insurance on your
own will always be difficult.  You need to be covered
by your employer.
 


I've heard that, too.

One way around it is to start your own business (even if it's only got one employee -- you), and enroll your business in a group health insurance plan.  It's a little more complicated than having just a personal health policy, but it works.



WyrdRich -> RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (3/19/2007 9:20:44 PM)

       This would be a very long post if I tried to give a complete answer to the question, a lifetime of experiences.  I'll give you something that DIDN'T happen that had a profound impact instead.

      My mother, and the man who became my step-father were deeply involved in the radical politics of the late 60's/early 70's.  They didn't just get stoned and show up, they organized, recruited, the Movement was their life.  When the draft board asked him 'was he now, or had he ever been, a member of the Communist Party,' he truthfully answered that he was a recruiter for the militant wing of the Socialist Workers Party and couldn't wait to get to Vietnam to educate his fellow draftees.  They sent him home and the FBI put him on a list. 

     He couldn't keep a job.  Agents would show up, flashing badges and asking if his employer was a communist too.  We moved from Portland, to Oakland, to New York City.  The phone never worked right, my mother found signs people had been in the house, he went through a lot of week long jobs.  The draft was over, the war was ending, they saw the writing on the wall for the movement and dropped out.  The FBI apparently didn't get the memo. 

      We tried a fresh start in my mother's tiny hometown in Indiana.  It seems there were a grand total of two communists in Indiana that year, plus a miniature one, who might contaminate the second grade.  The shit escalated quite a bit.  It was a very rough time.  We've joked in years since that we had our very own task force.  I blamed missed meals on Nixon until the day he died.  We left in the middle of the night and my step-father says we were followed all the way to St Louis.

     That was COINTELPRO and whatever they called the program after it was officially canceled.  I've never done a FOIA request and won't.  It would just piss me off.  A crazy time and a paranoid administration.  Come right down to it, they were advocating the overthrow of the government, and some of their friends believed violence was the way.

       This post was about what didn't happen though, and I'll tell you what that was.  The boots in the night.  They weren't dragged off and executed.  I wasn't re-educated in a state orphanage.  I read Solzhenitzen in High School and grasped just what a remarkable thing that was.  A thing worth preserving and defending.

      I love the USA.

      

     



petdave -> RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (3/19/2007 9:31:25 PM)

i think i became a libertarian somewhere around age ten or so, when i discovered that i could not drive a car, quit school (heh), or buy an air rifle simply because of my age. It was reinforced when i got a job at 15 and discovered that our founding principle of "no taxation without representation" somehow didn't mean that i could vote OR opt out of paying taxes.[:@]

i've always been a misfit, and i've read more than enough history to see how outcasts fare in a repressive society. In particular, since i was a perv well before the Internet brought graphic consensual bondage to every desktop, i learned a lot about prisons, inquisitions, concentration camps, purges, interrogations, and other reigns of official terror. While it is foolish to underestimate the danger of stupid people in large groups, it's when they get harnessed that it really becomes fight or flight time.

So i take the individual liberty over the collective "security" any day. Twice if no one's looking.

...dave



popeye1250 -> RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (3/19/2007 10:07:40 PM)

I grew up in a working class Irish American Democrat family in the Boston, Mass area where my father was a Firefighter and I worked from an early age.
When I was very young there'd be a few old guys walking down the street with shovels over their shoulders wearing Irish "scally" caps who would go around the city looking for work digging up people's gardens, digging holes to plant trees, masonry, brick work etc.
We'd see them walking by the house and my mother would say, "Oh look, there goes Packy Mulrennan out looking for a job of work." They'd knock on people's doors or see them in their yards and ask if , "Dey neeeded an-a  heavy work doon?"
A lot of Irish and Italian accents in those days in that area in the mid 1950's.
They were older guys in their 60's and 70's retired from factories who just liked to be out doing things or to make a few extra bucks or to get away from the wife or perhaps for a little whiskey money.
And they always seemed to be able to get plenty of work.
I remember my mother hiring this crusty old Irish guy to cut down a tree about 5 feet up from the ground that was dead and she told him that she had nighmares about that tree falling over and "getting her."
He cut it down about 5 feet up so that she could still use it to tie the end of her clothesline to.
He went back home and got an ax and it was down in about 15 minutes. Then he came in the house and had lunch with us and my mother gave him some money.
Most of those old guys lived to be well into their 90's!
None of them owned cars as far as I know and walked everywhere. They were real workers!
I was of course influenced by the Vietnam War and some of my classmates died in that war and many were wounded.
In the city next to us the guys went to college not into the military like so many of us did.
If my parents were still alive they'd never vote for that besotted POS Kennedy!
Democrats used to be "for the working man."
Not anymore. Oh Kennedy's "for the workingman" alright, only it's the Mexican workingman not the American workingman!
My parents and grandparents (from Ireland) must be rolling in their graves with that "Plastic Paddy" from Mass. in the Senate!
I've taken a lot of those political tests online that show you where you categorize politically and so far every single one of them calls me a "Moderate" whatever that is!
I vote the issues mostly.
I've seen the great importance in these last 14 years of people becomming actively involved in our govt, calling, e-mailing, faxing and writing letters to our congressmen and senators to keep a check on the Executive branch.
Only two more years for Bush.
With Clinton and Bush in the White House since 1993 to 2009 I think those  years will be looked at as "The Dark Ages" in American history much like 1929 to 1940.
One thing for sure, *The American People* need to have a LOT more POWER and say in how our government does our business.
I tend to be a "Newshound" too.
So I am very obviously influenced by my working class Irish immigrant roots.



NorthernGent -> RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (3/20/2007 12:34:11 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dtesmoac

Listening to Arthur Scargill and thinking pillock, adapt with the changing world or join the dinosaurs.



He was right though wasn't he because all the mines were closed and communities were left to rot. It's easy to talk about adapting from afar, but when you live in the community it's a different matter entirely. Not sure how much you actually know about Scargill, the striking miners and the conservative government, but you may find this interesting. http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/UK_miners'_strike_(1984–1985)




meatcleaver -> RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (3/20/2007 12:39:09 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: WyrdRich

    My mother, and the man who became my step-father were deeply involved in the radical politics of the late 60's/early 70's.  They didn't just get stoned and show up, they organized, recruited, the Movement was their life.  When the draft board asked him 'was he now, or had he ever been, a member of the Communist Party,' he truthfully answered that he was a recruiter for the militant wing of the Socialist Workers Party and couldn't wait to get to Vietnam to educate his fellow draftees.  They sent him home and the FBI put him on a list. 

   He couldn't keep a job.  Agents would show up, flashing badges and asking if his employer was a communist too.  We moved from Portland, to Oakland, to New York City.  The phone never worked right, my mother found signs people had been in the house, he went through a lot of week long jobs.  The draft was over, the war was ending, they saw the writing on the wall for the movement and dropped out.  The FBI apparently didn't get the memo. 

I love the USA.


See how free the USA is? Not. I can't quite work out why Americans insist that they live in the most free country in the world and their government is so powerful and yet so petty to make a deal over a couple of commiunists. Where is this mythical land of the free, over the rainbow?

I worked and lived with a whole bunch of communists and socialists throughout my life, I just don't see the big deal, in fact they are usually better educated than the average moron. It was a communist that introduced me to the joys of poetry when I was working in the coal mine and it it was a socialist that introduced me to art and the theatre. Hell, if I waited for the market place to introduce me to anything I would probably be in a sonambulant state staring at the idiot eye in the corner of the room.

Oh People's flag is palest pink
It's not as red as people think.



Vendaval -> RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (3/20/2007 12:48:13 AM)

During the Great Depression my maternal grand-parents had a farm,
and were able to provide most of their basic necessities.  My mother
and aunts have talked about men who would travel through the area,
looking for work.  My grand-father would find something for them
to do, give them some money, let them eat with the family and
they could sleep out in the barn.  If my grand-father was not at
home, my grand-mother would feed them outside on the porch.
 
And to this day, my mother is a huge pack-rat!  Heaven forbid
that you get rid of anything because someday it just might
come in useful!  lol  And of course she keeps a stock of canned
and dry foods in the cupboards. 



meatcleaver -> RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (3/20/2007 1:04:10 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dtesmoac

As a child vaguely remembering all the lights being off because of stikes in the coal industry and power industry.
There being no sugar because of some strike affecting the sugar industry.
Shortage of bread becasue of some strike affecting food manufacturing.
Being the only household on the street without a television, a phone or a car.
Listening to Arthur Scargill and thinking pillock, adapt with the changing world or join the dinosaurs.



I worked in the coal mine and was in the 72 strike. Actually for a single bloke the money was fine but for a family man the money was crap. In fact the miners hadn't had a pay increase for a decade at that point. They were way down the list when it came to wages, they were crap and year after year they had been promised a pay review and got nowt. After the 73 strike I went to Germany and worked in the coal mines there and earned a wage that was TWICE the British mineworkers wage and the Germans worked no harder than the British miners, in fact most of the miners were Turkish in the mine I was in. I traveled and worked a lot in Europe and the one thing I found out, it was the British management that was crap, not the workers. From what I could tell the British never invested in their industry so they were inevitably more inefficient. One time I worked in an aluminium smelter in Rotterdam (early seventies) and it was being modernised and upgraded. The old machines were being taken out and sent to Birmingham to UPGRADE the company's smelter there! Some fitters came across from Birmingham to help take the equipement apart so they couldput it backj together in Birmingham. The Brummies couldn't believe the wage I was earning, 250% of what they were earning and I was doing the same job. Not only that, if I worked 12 hours which was required during upgrading, I got a free three course meal in the company restuarant (and it was a restuarant), free drinks throughout the shift, lockers and showers and a taxi paid by the company to take me home, as well as a gym and sports club and all sorts of deals on theatre and concert tickets. The Brummies got nowt extra and they worked harder because they worked with older and more inefficient machines. This was not a one off either, it was the norm. When Britain joined the EU and food prices went up, I could fully understand all the strikes.



Vendaval -> RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (3/20/2007 6:01:28 PM)

Thank you for that recommendation, pollux.  [:)]
But I think for now tis best to let someone else
be the employer so that they can deal with all of
the regulations and taxes!



farglebargle -> RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (3/20/2007 6:16:31 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: pollux

quote:

ORIGINAL: Vendaval

The medical insurance agent I talked to informed me
that once you are turned down for medical coverage,
by any insurer for any reason, you are black-listed by
the entire medical insurance industry in the US for the
rest of your life. Getting medical insurance on your
own will always be difficult. You need to be covered
by your employer.



I've heard that, too.

One way around it is to start your own business (even if it's only got one employee -- you), and enroll your business in a group health insurance plan. It's a little more complicated than having just a personal health policy, but it works.



Contact your local Chamber of Commerce. Membership in the Chamber often permits you to take advantage of the Group Insurance offerings they have.




Vendaval -> RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (3/20/2007 6:19:19 PM)

Thank you, farglebargle! I had never heard of this before.[:)]



michaelOfGeorgia -> RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (3/20/2007 6:20:21 PM)

None. i've always hated politics



Dtesmoac -> RE: What life experiences have shaped your political point of view? (3/21/2007 4:23:26 PM)


He was right though wasn't he because all the mines were closed and communities were left to rot. It's easy to talk about adapting from afar, but when you live in the community it's a different matter entirely. Not sure how much you actually know about Scargill, the striking miners and the conservative government, but you may find this interesting. http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/UK_miners'_strike_(1984–1985)

The link doesn't appear to be working, but would be interest if there is another.  
Scargill picked a political fight for political reasons which was paid for by other people.
The miners believed they could and would bring the government down but had not realised that the rest of the country would not support them, times had changed.  
As for knowledge, I watched the news after school in an area where the economy meant people worked where and as they could, and considered that the miners were well paid and that the country was on its knees and needed someone to do something, anything to change it. 



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