How Did You Become "Conservative"?

[Roosky01]

I was born in 1973 and grew up in a "liberal" household where my parents were big Democrat voters (I remember Mom was so proud to vote Carter against Reagan ). I'm the oldest of 5 and 4 out of 5 of us are full FJB and what I'd consider conservative? We all went to public school and college or tech school and have very distinct personalities, but tend to mesh on the political spectrum, except for my oldest sister, who is a flaming libtard....Makes for an eventful Holiday season!

Just curious what other's situation was?

 

[Wizard29]

I was raised and taught that if I wanted something I had to work for it, nobody owes me shit, and what I earn is mine.

Kind of sums it up.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Pops voted Dem, because they were who the unions voted for. Mom was independent, but mostly conservative...Her Dad was a foreman/supervisor for aerospace machining. I'm the youngest of three,born in 77.
My sister, 8 years older, herd of kids, 3 fathers, all losers. She did drugs and drank...Last I heard, 3 of her 5 kids were productive types...don't know about her or the other 2 kids. Haven't seen or heard from her in years.
My brother, 5 years my senior, is a libtard freak! His wife the same. Both are almost 50, have their masters degrees...and student loans. They have made it clear we won't be seeing them until we are vaxxed. I feel bad for my kids...but my brother can kiss my ass.

I dropped out of college, did some shady stuff before and after. Somewhere along the trip I got married, started a family...I grew up. I got a real job, and started contracting. Made what I thought was decent money, started to build a life I was proud of. Then something happened: I realized I paid enough in taxes to support 3 families of illegals.
What I have isn't a whole lot, but I busted my ass to get it. I'll be damned if I'm going to hand it over to fools who want to give it to the lazy.

 

[VooDooChildZ28]

Obsessed with guns, despite 2 lib parents

 

[monkeyswrench]

Obsessed with guns, despite 2 lib parents

No you're not "obsessed"...You simply keep them safe and away from boats for people

 

[welldigger00]

I’m third generation general contractor. Nuff said.

 

[evantwheeler]

I was raised and taught that if I wanted something I had to work for it, nobody owes me shit, and what I earn is mine.

Kind of sums it up.

37 years old. This pretty much. I disagree with nobody owes me shit tough, the government owes me the services paid for by my taxes.

 

[dspracing]

I was born with a brain and ability to make logical decisions. Therefore, I can differentiate between good and bad ideas.

 

[wallnutz]

Grew up with liberal parents and decided it wasn't for me.

 

[Bpracing1127]

Can’t stand the LBGTq whatever the fuck you are community and that “I owe” you something for being white and making money. Fuck that

 

[welldigger00]

The fact that we are all up hours before daybreak is another clue of which way we vote….

 

[MPHSystems]

No you're not "obsessed"...You simply keep them safe and away from boats for people

how do you keep a gun safe from a boat? Lots of oil I suppose?

 

[Waffles]

I grew up.

Mind you, I voted for Obunga the first go around (I wasnt old enough to vote in the 04 election). Incidentally, it was around the same time i got my first real job out of HS and thats when shit hit the fan for me politically. Shit hits different when you get bumped up a couple of tax brackets and you realize the side you were always told, "had your best interests", really didnt.

 

[Marmkat]

Common sense

 

[attitude]

I was raised to be a hard working productive member of society by both parents. Nothing makes me smile like going on Facebook and seeing all the liberal kids I graduated high school with blaming everyone and everything for them still living at home making $15 an hour lol. We all had a choice and most of us here chose right.

 

[02HoWaRd26]

I was raised and taught that if I wanted something I had to work for it, nobody owes me shit, and what I earn is mine.

Kind of sums it up.

I definitely couldn’t have said it this way, and i really wish your reply was further down. I read the op question three times and thought deep before scrolling, and the second i read your reply i truly have nothing more to add. Very well said.

And I’m union and have been since i was 21, the original thought is how i was raised, if you want it, work for it, as well 09/11/01 and being 19 and opening my eyes after, the union pushes us so hard to the left and well if i had the choice with my job it’d be real hard to continue paying my dues.

 

[FreeBird236]

I actually grew up in the flower child era and used to consider my self somewhat moderate, but all this left BS has pushed me farther right and I'm proud of it. My parents were John Kennedy democrat's, but they both changed a few years before their passing.

 

[Xtrmwakeboarder]

I was raised and taught that if I wanted something I had to work for it, nobody owes me shit, and what I earn is mine.

Kind of sums it up.

Yep, 100%.

 

[nameisbond]

My parents are conservatives. Grade 7, so around 1984, my teacher was an American Vietnam draft dodger socialist idiot. Id argue pro American and pro Reagan doctrine stuff with him to get out of class. My views haven't changed much, further right now then when a teenager.

 

[azsunfun]

just looked at my pay stub.

 

[4Waters]

I was raised and taught that if I wanted something I had to work for it, nobody owes me shit, and what I earn is mine.

Kind of sums it up.

Right here

 

[TeamGreene]

Dad was a stucco contractor, hard work and self reliance was instilled at a young age.

 

[DC-88]

Started paying the quarterly "941's" as a contractor at age 23 and figured it out real quick from there.

 

[Meaney77]

I was raised and taught that if I wanted something I had to work for it, nobody owes me shit, and what I earn is mine.

Kind of sums it up.

Same- I am 47 years old and have worked since I was 12.

I didnt come from anything and I knew if I wanted nice things I had to work for it which is what I did and try to instill the same in my kids now.

My dad voted D only because he was a blue collar type and I am sure he is rolling in his grave knowing what the Democrat party has become. DIms today arent what they used to be. I honestly never really cared for politics up until the Obummer era... Now its hard not to be consumed by it when you see whats going on around you every day.

I have an older brother and we are very aligned with our views. My mom and my wife couldn't be any further right. I am hoping to teach my kids properly and keep them thinking along the same lines. We come across things daily and try to use these examples as learning opportunities.

 

[Roosky01]

I remember knowing at about 10 years old that I thought much differenty than my parents when it came to politics. Not sure I really knew what politics were at that point, but I knew I was different.

I recall watching this with my Grandpa and he had tears running down his face and I did as well. I think this was a defining moment for me becoming a Patriot and Conservative.

 

[ChiliPepperGarage]

Born in 1956 and raised in the country. Learned at an early age the reward of hard work, how to build and fix stuff, work on cars, etc. Nothing worthwhile comes easy. You are rewarded for the work you put in and the effort made. Was taught to treat others fairly and with respect until they do something to lose it. Be polite, respect your elders, mind your manners, and act like a man.

I've always been called an "old soul". I hung out with older people and acted more mature than my age. The old adage, "If you aren't a liberal when you're young you have no heart. If you're not a conservative when you're old you have no brain" come to mind.

 

[RCDave]

I was raised with values stemming from the Greatest Generation. That generation didn't need government to run their lives and are fiercely independent and self reliant.

 

[CLdrinker]

No idea. My family was mostly Democrat until Obama. They finally realized how dumb they were.

Grandma thought Clinton was awesome.

 

[KevinR]

Great to read the common threads to the responses. Pretty much the same here.

My parents, aunts and uncles and grandparents were all lockstep in raising me, my brother and cousins. You are responsible for your actions and decisions. You always give your best effort. You want something, you earn it. You respect others and their property.

When I really began to understand politics was when my wife and I were looking to buy our first home in 1980 when we were getting married. Only places we could consider were homes with assumable loans. At that time interest rates were running around 18% I recall. We could not afford a mortgage with that much interest payment each month. We found a condo with a 9% assumable loan.

So we voted for Reagan because we listened and learned about conservatism from Ronnie on the campaign trail and debates. We also learned about how Carter and the Democrats wanted to keep things the same.

As the next few years passed and the USA took off again over the next 12 years, we now had grown up to understand how federal, state and local politics affected us and our adult decision making for us and our growing family of four.

Just like what happened in 2016 with Trump after 12 years of the USA on another downward slide (Bush term two and two terms of Obama).

 

[MPHSystems]

I voted for Obunga

Jebuss!

I made $20 bucks and ended up catching syphilis once but I don’t go bragging about that on the internet.

 

[PaPaG]

I think I was conservative since the day I was born , I knew I was 100% Conservative when I first heard Ronnie and his speech "A Time for Choosing" about a decade after he made it when I started getting interested in Politics.

 

[Shlbyntro]

I am the elder of 2 kids. As a kid and teenager and even later on I always got the shaft while my parents handed my fuckup of a sister everything. I quickly learned that if I wanted something, it was up to me to work for it, earn it, get it for myself because I couldn't depend on anyone else for it. The one thing I had a lot of from my parents as long as I can remember is freedom, I was my own keeper.

So I am thankful for that freedom and that lesson of life that carved me into this human being. Needless to say, my sister is a very different kind of human being and we barely talk.

 

[McKay]

Started paying the quarterly "941's" as a contractor at age 23 and figured it out real quick from there.

Exactly this but a 1040-ES! Same age started my biz. By age 25 tired of mailing the IRS a really nice house every 3-4 months.

 

[jailbird141]

If I had to choose a defining moment when I think I became a conservative, it would have to be the moment I became able to think and reason for myself. Seems to be, at that point I couldn't be anything else. So, conservative it was.

 

[Roosky01]

I think I was conservative since the day I was born , I knew I was 100% Conservative when I first heard Ronnie and his speech "A Time for Choosing" about a decade after he made it when I started getting interested in Politics.

That speech is one of the most impactful to have ever been given...

 

[Waffles]

Jebuss!

I made $20 bucks and ended up catching syphilis once but I don’t go bragging about that on the internet.

Was he worth it though? lol

 

[MCnParker]

Grew up in a household that didn't really discuss politics in front of the kids, I knew my dad was conservative but my mom was a school teacher so I was unsure. Honestly it didn't matter because we were not well off, my parents worked their asses off to help ensure that my sister and I had everything that we NEEDED. I had lots of friends that got whatever they wanted, if I wanted something other than what was NEEDED to play a sport or be cool it was on me to get buy it, or wait till Christmas for the one big present under the tree. At a young age I realized that I never wanted someone to take away my ability to get what I was willing to work hard for.

 

[QC22]

I grew up in a very lefty home. I'll be 62 next week. My mom is a PhD English professor as well as both of my Stepfathers. One growing up, and my Mom's current husband. My Mom is the worst of them, proud Atheist Socialist Anyway... I always say if I write a book the title will be "I Learned all My Conservative Values from my Socialist Mother". It blows my mind, but she taught me to work hard, nothing is free, you're responsible for all that happens to you, people are more important than animals etc. etc. With all that I was still a hippy dippy dipshit when I started working full-time at 18. I started at Shepherd Machinery (Now Quinn) in Whittier in Nov 1977. It was probably a couple of years later that I was asked to put a political sticker on my Company Car (got it when I was 20) for some legislation. Pissed me off. But then I realized, it was their car, and they can put what they want up. Then I got a clue and understood what they were supporting helped their business. And that would mean more jobs for more people. And then I thought, "why wouldn't the owner just sell everything and kick back?" And the answer was opportunity, the opportunity to do something bigger and better, and all that would create more jobs for more people. The lights went on and I have never turned back.

College professors will never understand this. Their income comes from others, through taxes or private donations, so they believe everything can be handled this way, aka, Communism. The light will never go on for them.

 

[ltbaney1]

My old man owns his own construction biz and i was raised that if i wanted something get my ass to work.

 

[DaveC]

Raised by liberal parents in the Bay Area in an entirely liberal family. Went to a VERY liberal university. They all did their best to try to turn me into a Tard.

Didn’t take.

Now I am a business owner/CPA. I am successful so…..

 

[Tank]

I grew up in a house that really wasn't politically oriented. Not much political talk at all. I never really paid any attention. As I got older and started paying a little attention I felt I was "independent" where I agreed on some views on both sides of the isle (still do somewhat). But the more you pay attention to politics the more the conservative or libertarian mindset makes sense. I changed my registration to R first time ever after Obama. However, I think I'm more Libertarian than true Republican.

But the biggest number one factor of why I finally changed my status to R was I wanted to get away from the Democratic party and the behavior they displayed as quickly and as far as possible. The shit they do, the shit they say, the way they behave and things they want and allow is beyond disguising, it's detrimental to this country.

 

[coolchange]

Jebuss!

I made $20 bucks and ended up catching syphilis once but I don’t go bragging about that on the internet.

Actually made me lol! And I don’t get to do that much anymore.

 

[nowski]

My dad was Archie Bunker and mom was Edith Bunker need I say more...

 

[Mandelon]

Common Sense x 2 also. Basic Economics.

 

[MPHSystems]

Was he worth it though? lol

Twenty bucks is twenty bucks.

 

[Shlbyntro]

 

[QC22]

Great thread!

 

[RCDave]

Great thread!

INDEED

 

[HocusPocus]

I am 59 and can't remember a time when I wasn't a conservative. I was at Air Force Basic Training the first time I got to vote in 1980, Ronald Reagan was my choice.

 

[QC22]

As I got older and started paying a little attention I felt I was "independent" where I agreed on some views on both sides of the isle (still do somewhat).

I thought this way for a while as well. I have to be fair and give Dennis Prager credit for changing my mind on this one. Independent politically is weak. You have no power whatsoever. Sadly, we have a two party system. You're either in, or you're out. Until that changes you have to pick a side.