Liberals who become Conservatives vs Vice Versa???

[bucs90]

Maybe I'm wrong (doubt it) and maybe there are studies about this that I'm too lazy to Google. But, from my near 40 years life experience, I've found a trend:

Many people who are college age are liberal minded. Many who are older are conservative minded. Whats the old saying: "If you are in college and you aren't a liberal, you have no heart. If you are out of college, and you aren't a conservative, you have no brain."

SO, my observation is that I've seen and known a lot of people who were once liberal minded, but gradually changed into more right leaning viewpoints. However, I've met very few, really none that I can remember, people who were conservative/right leaning that gradually became more liberal with time. Why is that?

I confess, I was a sociology major in college in the early 90's. I was taught to praise Karl Marx for his brilliance, and if only we listened to people like him and George Bernard Shaw, how great the world would be. I was taught how most social problems were the result of corporate greed and overpopulation of the planet, and of course, I took Oceanology as a required course (aka, Global Warming is killing us all) with the follow-up class of Social and Environmental Law (nifty sequence, huh?). So, upon my graduation, I of course thought we should stop all oil drilling and drastically limit driving. I thought we had overpopulated the world to a point that we would starve by the year 2005. I thought all big corporations should be broken down to dozens of smaller ones that the workers owned. I was, in fact, a near prototypical libbie.

Then something funny happened. My views changed. I learned that getting a good job meant working for a big, stable company. The more profits they made, the better raises and benefits I got. Huh. Interesting. Then I interacted and observed trends in our society. How my taxes went up gradually as I made more money. Ok. Expected. But I saw where they went. To welfare programs that I applauded in college. But in college we were only told of people who needed it because they were oppressed, and had no opportunity.

But I saw countless open jobs. Entry level jobs. Fast food jobs. Janitor jobs. But OPEN jobs. But people refused to take them. They take welfare, but not that job. And they would drink beer, play the lottery, buy smokes, have cable TV......and whine about more gov't money. I thought "These aren't the oppressed people I thought welfare was made for".

Without going through example after example, life experiences change my views from those left wing college era theoretical ideals, to the more real-life practical right leaning ideals I have now. And I'm far from alone.

I'm just looking for the folks that went from conservative to liberal after seeing conservative ideals (saving money, personal responsibility, no handouts, etc) fail and liberal ideals advance them in life.

 

[ConHog]

BUT BUT BUT according to Sangha, NO ONE abuses the welfare system. No s/he really he said it.

The only people I know who choose not to do for themselves are those who sacrifice their own well-being in order to help someone else.

"Doing for oneself" is selfish, and there's plenty of selfish people. Selfless people? Not so much

 

[syrenn]

Maybe I'm wrong (doubt it) and maybe there are studies about this that I'm too lazy to Google. But, from my near 40 years life experience, I've found a trend:

Many people who are college age are liberal minded. Many who are older are conservative minded. Whats the old saying: "If you are in college and you aren't a liberal, you have no heart. If you are out of college, and you aren't a conservative, you have no brain."

SO, my observation is that I've seen and known a lot of people who were once liberal minded, but gradually changed into more right leaning viewpoints. However, I've met very few, really none that I can remember, people who were conservative/right leaning that gradually became more liberal with time. Why is that?

I confess, I was a sociology major in college in the early 90's. I was taught to praise Karl Marx for his brilliance, and if only we listened to people like him and George Bernard Shaw, how great the world would be. I was taught how most social problems were the result of corporate greed and overpopulation of the planet, and of course, I took Oceanology as a required course (aka, Global Warming is killing us all) with the follow-up class of Social and Environmental Law (nifty sequence, huh?). So, upon my graduation, I of course thought we should stop all oil drilling and drastically limit driving. I thought we had overpopulated the world to a point that we would starve by the year 2005. I thought all big corporations should be broken down to dozens of smaller ones that the workers owned. I was, in fact, a near prototypical libbie.

Then something funny happened. My views changed. I learned that getting a good job meant working for a big, stable company. The more profits they made, the better raises and benefits I got. Huh. Interesting. Then I interacted and observed trends in our society. How my taxes went up gradually as I made more money. Ok. Expected. But I saw where they went. To welfare programs that I applauded in college. But in college we were only told of people who needed it because they were oppressed, and had no opportunity.

But I saw countless open jobs. Entry level jobs. Fast food jobs. Janitor jobs. But OPEN jobs. But people refused to take them. They take welfare, but not that job. And they would drink beer, play the lottery, buy smokes, have cable TV......and whine about more gov't money. I thought "These aren't the oppressed people I thought welfare was made for".

Without going through example after example, life experiences change my views from those left wing college era theoretical ideals, to the more real-life practical right leaning ideals I have now. And I'm far from alone.

I'm just looking for the folks that went from conservative to liberal after seeing conservative ideals (saving money, personal responsibility, no handouts, etc) fail and liberal ideals advance them in life.

There it is in a nut shell

It is amazing when you finally live in the real world and not in the dreams of what a real world should be.

In college they don't tell you YOU will have to pay for all of those lovely ideas.

 

[bucs90]

OH, thats right, I forgot, welfare is never abused. Nor is Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security.

One of the things that pissed me off the most in my political views was back when I once worked in law enforcement in ATL. I was in a gas station for a call about a cashier who had been stealing money from the register. The owner gave me her info, and said she only worked 1 day a week. In fact, I frequented that same station for coffee on shifts. I noticed he had a lot of employees, like 20, most of whom only worked 1 or 2 shifts a week. I asked him about that. His answer? He offers jobs that are full-time, but in the ghetto area he opened the store, he could only get people willing to work 1-2 shifts a week. Why? Because it was enough to prove they are attempting to work, but not enough income for them to be kicked off welfare/food stamps/gov't housing.

Genius. Work 1 day a week to show effort to social services employee. BUT, remain "oppressed", aka "I can't find full-time job", so you keep gov't welfare, housing, food stamps. Total earnings of 1 shift + gov't handouts = same as working 5 shifts without gov't handouts. SO...........why work????

THAT is liberal policy in practice.

 

[syrenn]

 

[bucs90]

Maybe I'm wrong (doubt it) and maybe there are studies about this that I'm too lazy to Google. But, from my near 40 years life experience, I've found a trend:

Many people who are college age are liberal minded. Many who are older are conservative minded. Whats the old saying: "If you are in college and you aren't a liberal, you have no heart. If you are out of college, and you aren't a conservative, you have no brain."

SO, my observation is that I've seen and known a lot of people who were once liberal minded, but gradually changed into more right leaning viewpoints. However, I've met very few, really none that I can remember, people who were conservative/right leaning that gradually became more liberal with time. Why is that?

I confess, I was a sociology major in college in the early 90's. I was taught to praise Karl Marx for his brilliance, and if only we listened to people like him and George Bernard Shaw, how great the world would be. I was taught how most social problems were the result of corporate greed and overpopulation of the planet, and of course, I took Oceanology as a required course (aka, Global Warming is killing us all) with the follow-up class of Social and Environmental Law (nifty sequence, huh?). So, upon my graduation, I of course thought we should stop all oil drilling and drastically limit driving. I thought we had overpopulated the world to a point that we would starve by the year 2005. I thought all big corporations should be broken down to dozens of smaller ones that the workers owned. I was, in fact, a near prototypical libbie.

Then something funny happened. My views changed. I learned that getting a good job meant working for a big, stable company. The more profits they made, the better raises and benefits I got. Huh. Interesting. Then I interacted and observed trends in our society. How my taxes went up gradually as I made more money. Ok. Expected. But I saw where they went. To welfare programs that I applauded in college. But in college we were only told of people who needed it because they were oppressed, and had no opportunity.

But I saw countless open jobs. Entry level jobs. Fast food jobs. Janitor jobs. But OPEN jobs. But people refused to take them. They take welfare, but not that job. And they would drink beer, play the lottery, buy smokes, have cable TV......and whine about more gov't money. I thought "These aren't the oppressed people I thought welfare was made for".

Without going through example after example, life experiences change my views from those left wing college era theoretical ideals, to the more real-life practical right leaning ideals I have now. And I'm far from alone.

I'm just looking for the folks that went from conservative to liberal after seeing conservative ideals (saving money, personal responsibility, no handouts, etc) fail and liberal ideals advance them in life.

There it is in a nut shell

It is amazing when you finally live in the real world and not in the dreams of what a real world should be.

In college they don't tell you YOU will have to pay for all of those lovely ideas.

Yep. See my above example. Atlanta, bad neighborhood, man owns a gas station. He offers full-time jobs, but can only find people willing to work 1 or 2 shifts a week. Why?

They can prove they are attempting to find work (req by social service employees). But, they don't earn enough to be removed from welfare/food stamps/ govt housing.

So, they keep the welfare/food stamps/govt housing/ (coming soon healthcare) while working 1 shift a week to show effort. Their total income with 1 shift + gov't handout is = to working 5-6 shifts a week w/o handout. So, why bother working more when the gov't will make up the difference?

That owner had about 20 employees, none willing to work more than 1 or 2 shifts a week because they'd rather get the handout than earn the money.

Liberal ideals at work. AND, guess who those employees will vote for in elections? Yep. Whoever promises to give more handouts, not take the handouts away. Brilliant concept to keep more voters voting for Dems isn't it?

 

[JScott]

Maybe I'm wrong (doubt it) and maybe there are studies about this that I'm too lazy to Google. But, from my near 40 years life experience, I've found a trend:

Many people who are college age are liberal minded. Many who are older are conservative minded. Whats the old saying: "If you are in college and you aren't a liberal, you have no heart. If you are out of college, and you aren't a conservative, you have no brain."

SO, my observation is that I've seen and known a lot of people who were once liberal minded, but gradually changed into more right leaning viewpoints. However, I've met very few, really none that I can remember, people who were conservative/right leaning that gradually became more liberal with time. Why is that?

I confess, I was a sociology major in college in the early 90's. I was taught to praise Karl Marx for his brilliance, and if only we listened to people like him and George Bernard Shaw, how great the world would be. I was taught how most social problems were the result of corporate greed and overpopulation of the planet, and of course, I took Oceanology as a required course (aka, Global Warming is killing us all) with the follow-up class of Social and Environmental Law (nifty sequence, huh?). So, upon my graduation, I of course thought we should stop all oil drilling and drastically limit driving. I thought we had overpopulated the world to a point that we would starve by the year 2005. I thought all big corporations should be broken down to dozens of smaller ones that the workers owned. I was, in fact, a near prototypical libbie.

Then something funny happened. My views changed. I learned that getting a good job meant working for a big, stable company. The more profits they made, the better raises and benefits I got. Huh. Interesting. Then I interacted and observed trends in our society. How my taxes went up gradually as I made more money. Ok. Expected. But I saw where they went. To welfare programs that I applauded in college. But in college we were only told of people who needed it because they were oppressed, and had no opportunity.

But I saw countless open jobs. Entry level jobs. Fast food jobs. Janitor jobs. But OPEN jobs. But people refused to take them. They take welfare, but not that job. And they would drink beer, play the lottery, buy smokes, have cable TV......and whine about more gov't money. I thought "These aren't the oppressed people I thought welfare was made for".

Without going through example after example, life experiences change my views from those left wing college era theoretical ideals, to the more real-life practical right leaning ideals I have now. And I'm far from alone.

I'm just looking for the folks that went from conservative to liberal after seeing conservative ideals (saving money, personal responsibility, no handouts, etc) fail and liberal ideals advance them in life.

Most of this post is fairy tale stuff. Oh and generalizations.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

I dropped my flirtation with Liberalism when I reviewed my first paycheck.

 

[ConHog]

Maybe I'm wrong (doubt it) and maybe there are studies about this that I'm too lazy to Google. But, from my near 40 years life experience, I've found a trend:

Many people who are college age are liberal minded. Many who are older are conservative minded. Whats the old saying: "If you are in college and you aren't a liberal, you have no heart. If you are out of college, and you aren't a conservative, you have no brain."

SO, my observation is that I've seen and known a lot of people who were once liberal minded, but gradually changed into more right leaning viewpoints. However, I've met very few, really none that I can remember, people who were conservative/right leaning that gradually became more liberal with time. Why is that?

I confess, I was a sociology major in college in the early 90's. I was taught to praise Karl Marx for his brilliance, and if only we listened to people like him and George Bernard Shaw, how great the world would be. I was taught how most social problems were the result of corporate greed and overpopulation of the planet, and of course, I took Oceanology as a required course (aka, Global Warming is killing us all) with the follow-up class of Social and Environmental Law (nifty sequence, huh?). So, upon my graduation, I of course thought we should stop all oil drilling and drastically limit driving. I thought we had overpopulated the world to a point that we would starve by the year 2005. I thought all big corporations should be broken down to dozens of smaller ones that the workers owned. I was, in fact, a near prototypical libbie.

Then something funny happened. My views changed. I learned that getting a good job meant working for a big, stable company. The more profits they made, the better raises and benefits I got. Huh. Interesting. Then I interacted and observed trends in our society. How my taxes went up gradually as I made more money. Ok. Expected. But I saw where they went. To welfare programs that I applauded in college. But in college we were only told of people who needed it because they were oppressed, and had no opportunity.

But I saw countless open jobs. Entry level jobs. Fast food jobs. Janitor jobs. But OPEN jobs. But people refused to take them. They take welfare, but not that job. And they would drink beer, play the lottery, buy smokes, have cable TV......and whine about more gov't money. I thought "These aren't the oppressed people I thought welfare was made for".

Without going through example after example, life experiences change my views from those left wing college era theoretical ideals, to the more real-life practical right leaning ideals I have now. And I'm far from alone.

I'm just looking for the folks that went from conservative to liberal after seeing conservative ideals (saving money, personal responsibility, no handouts, etc) fail and liberal ideals advance them in life.

Most of this post is fairy tale stuff. Oh and generalizations.

As opposed to your buddy Sangha who claims that no one on welfare is abusing the system?

 

[Modbert]

So how is the right wing circlejerk in here from the faux Conservatives? I hope you all know that the OP has called for Obama to be overthrown by the CIA. Just some food for thought.

 

[JScott]

Maybe I'm wrong (doubt it) and maybe there are studies about this that I'm too lazy to Google. But, from my near 40 years life experience, I've found a trend:

Many people who are college age are liberal minded. Many who are older are conservative minded. Whats the old saying: "If you are in college and you aren't a liberal, you have no heart. If you are out of college, and you aren't a conservative, you have no brain."

SO, my observation is that I've seen and known a lot of people who were once liberal minded, but gradually changed into more right leaning viewpoints. However, I've met very few, really none that I can remember, people who were conservative/right leaning that gradually became more liberal with time. Why is that?

I confess, I was a sociology major in college in the early 90's. I was taught to praise Karl Marx for his brilliance, and if only we listened to people like him and George Bernard Shaw, how great the world would be. I was taught how most social problems were the result of corporate greed and overpopulation of the planet, and of course, I took Oceanology as a required course (aka, Global Warming is killing us all) with the follow-up class of Social and Environmental Law (nifty sequence, huh?). So, upon my graduation, I of course thought we should stop all oil drilling and drastically limit driving. I thought we had overpopulated the world to a point that we would starve by the year 2005. I thought all big corporations should be broken down to dozens of smaller ones that the workers owned. I was, in fact, a near prototypical libbie.

Then something funny happened. My views changed. I learned that getting a good job meant working for a big, stable company. The more profits they made, the better raises and benefits I got. Huh. Interesting. Then I interacted and observed trends in our society. How my taxes went up gradually as I made more money. Ok. Expected. But I saw where they went. To welfare programs that I applauded in college. But in college we were only told of people who needed it because they were oppressed, and had no opportunity.

But I saw countless open jobs. Entry level jobs. Fast food jobs. Janitor jobs. But OPEN jobs. But people refused to take them. They take welfare, but not that job. And they would drink beer, play the lottery, buy smokes, have cable TV......and whine about more gov't money. I thought "These aren't the oppressed people I thought welfare was made for".

Without going through example after example, life experiences change my views from those left wing college era theoretical ideals, to the more real-life practical right leaning ideals I have now. And I'm far from alone.

I'm just looking for the folks that went from conservative to liberal after seeing conservative ideals (saving money, personal responsibility, no handouts, etc) fail and liberal ideals advance them in life.

Most of this post is fairy tale stuff. Oh and generalizations.

As opposed to your buddy Sangha who claims that no one on welfare is abusing the system?

Why dont you tell me how many are?

 

[ConHog]

Most of this post is fairy tale stuff. Oh and generalizations.

As opposed to your buddy Sangha who claims that no one on welfare is abusing the system?

Why dont you tell me how many are?

More than none, I can guarantee you that.

 

[saveliberty]

It is a painful operation requiring you apply for a job and accept it. After a period of time you take on responsibility and have kids which restrict your freedom. In the final stage you feel compelled to conserve your resources and retain what few right you still have.

In order to reverse the process and become liberal again would require cashing in your 401(k) and giving it to the ACLU, living in a box and giving up your cat.

 

[my2¢]

I've always been fiscally conservative, but being in a far more comfortable position then when I was younger I've become much more liberal in regards to charities, tipping and such. Regarding international politics, more-and-more I see it: "Young men die for old men's pride," as being the way of the world.

 

[oreo]

Well-it's pretty simple--if you're not a liberal at 21 there's probably something wrong with your heart--and if you're not conservative by 25 you're dumber that s....stake.