Fourthd-eded… 
Mid-40s here…
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You are not alone in that, either. I think that’s a good part of the reason why there are more and more of us who aren’t getting more conservative. I was never conservative, but I was center-left as an undergrad, and my uncle and a couple of other family members used to laugh and tell me I was too idealistic and I’d get more conservative as I got older. That never happened, but I did experience poverty in my early 40s, which began my leftward movement. Law school has accelerated it.
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Back when, I actually (gasp) voted for Nixon in 1972, but then was appalled by his crimes. And I was really pissed when Ford pardoned him (oh dear, we can’t have the country go through impeachment and trial etc., etc.), and let him resign without penalty. Powerful people realized they didn’t have to worry about being punished for anything. Carter was OK, but I thought him much too fiscally conservative.
Reagan really turned me to the hard left, especially when Newt Gingrich came along with his so-called “Contract with America.”
I’ve gotten more and more progressive since. The US has really gone downhill (falling down a cliff actually). So many people are losing their rights and power to change things.
I’d be happy with a just socialism. But I must admit I’m suspicious of anarchism. I think that would lead to the biggest bullies grabbing power, and we’d be right back to feudalism. In fact, I’m pessimistic that things will ever get better in the world, especially with global warming causing catastrophes on a scale humans have never seen before.
Phooey.
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I haven’t studied anarchism as a political theory enough to give an informed opinion, but I’m inclined to agree with you.
Dang, you voted for Nixon? JK. Except for his fascist tendencies, he was, certainly by modern standards, a moderate Republican. He signed the law that created the EPA. He almost succeeded in striking a deal with Ted Kennedy to bring universal healthcare to the US, and it was Kennedy that actually killed that deal. I was only a day away from being 4 on election day in 1972, so I can’t say I remember Nixon as President, but I can imagine he seemed a reasonable choice at the time.
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Interesting. My experience is pretty is much the same as yours. Now, of course, I’m so far to the left it doesn’t even have a place in the US paradigm, even though I’m considered moderately conservative here in Europe. Mostly that’s because I discovered fifteen or twenty years ago that European-style integrated democratic socialism works, and now I live that every day. It’s so much better than the US that people get tired of me telling them about it. Yes, there are parts of it that are not great, but the worst of here is better than the best of there. I’m continually surprised how much that annoys some people.
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I used to feel the same way. For a long time I viewed myself as something of a socialist, communist and anarchist (props to Howard Zinn). I never got that into theory, but have read some and thought of socialism as the most practical to implement, communism was an organizational idea ( from each to each) and anarchism was the lens I viewed power relations through. However the current slide into fascism has changed my view of the state.
We’re back to that in our current socioeconomic structure and the current direction we’re headed in human rights has me significantly more receptive to anarchist thinking.
I feel the same way but still foolishly have a small amount of hope.
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This bill is a great example of my ever growing distrust of the state. Bipartisan support of banning trans people from the internet.
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I’m 45 and grew up in a very socialist family, and since I’ve been politically aware, I’ve become only more and more socialist. Coming out as trans definitely made me even more socialist and anarchist too.
There are dozens of us!
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I’m another mid-40s leftist.
Given my current views, people would probably find it odd that as a teen even into early adulthood I was right libertarian. I read Rush Limbaugh’s book, and other right-wing media (but not quite so far as Ayn Rand).
But then I got out on my own and started seeing what real life was like. I made a few mistakes and ended up homeless. Timeshared an abandoned building with some other homeless people, lived in a hippie camp for awhile, crashed at an anarchist punk house, and couch surfed with a few different groups of people - college students, rednecks, and yuppies, as well as just spending a lot of time out in the city interacting with people I would’ve never interacted with growing up.
The more different people I got to know, and the more I got to know about real life, and about poverty, the further left I started shifting. My old idealistic right thoughts were pretty much gone by the time I left the south and moved to the northeast. And I’ve become more and more left in the 23 years since then.
I think it’s probably not as uncommon these days as it used to be.
The right has messaging that really appeals to young men. But life experience (especially tough times) and exposure to more different people changes how you view things. And while the internet isn’t perfect, and there are certainly echo chambers, it also does expose people to so much more than they ever would’ve known if living isolated lives among like-minded people with little media input except faux news on TV and Rush Limbaugh on the radio.
Times are getting tougher, and people are seeing how much better many other countries have it, and wondering why we can’t have that. Especially, as they get older and their families get older, things like healthcare and pensions. And after having worked bad jobs, or wanting more time with family, things like labor rights.
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I’ve been reading about this every day. The Texas Tribune is the best place for day-to-day nitty gritty coverage. They’ve also taken this chance to also dig up a whole bunch of other corrupt shit he’s done. https://www.texastribune.org/
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Oh, and count me and my spouse in as more socialist as we age. I am much further left than I was even in college and while he isn’t quite as far left as I am, he did have further to travel from a christian homeschooled education
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He’s been under indictment for years now, but he keeps pulling every legal maneuver possible to delay the trial. And as attorney general, he’s acutely aware of all the legal maneuvering available to him.
Texas government is essentially a triumvirate of Abbott, Patrick, and Paxton and has been for years, but those three really don’t like each other. Patrick, especially I think, would like to be rid of Paxton.
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I’m hoping Paxton falls and the impeachment tarnishes the entire state GOP.
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I thought Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick already did that?
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I meant tarnished in the eyes of GOP voters.
Everyone else knows they’ve gone full maga death cult
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Oh, another interesting detail of this impeachment trial is that one of the state senators is Paxton’s wife. She did not recuse herself. She is barred from the deliberations, but she’s not removed entirely from the proceedings, which means 21 votes will still be required to convict. Had she recused herself like she should have, it would have dropped the conviction requirement to 20 votes.
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And isn’t this related to Paxton’s extra-marital affair, too?
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Republicans may have dumbed down politics, but the mainstream media, with its embrace of a good guy/bad guy narrative and its refusal to focus on the issues and interrogate problematic candidates, is the real culprit in the demise of our democracy.
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