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**USArmyParatrooper** · 03-17-2011, 09:22 PM

Al Franken's book, "Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them" was the book that really got me into politics. I started to pay attention during the 2000 Clinton impeachment trials. I had joined the Marine Corps reserves (now active Army) in 1995. My civilian career was taking off. I was happy. I got out of the USMCr in 2001, and the entire time the prospect of going to war seemed completely unreal to me. During the 2000 Republican primaries the big debate was - who can beat Gore during a time of "peace and prosperity" (their words). I was deeply devastated when Bush ended up taking it. I despised Fox News and couldn't believe anyone could think they're 'Fair and Balanced'

In any event, later down the road I picked up that book. As I was reading it I kept saying, "Holy crap! That's right! I remember that!" The book had a strange combination of hilarious humor and some hard truth. It constantly shifted me back and forth between extreme anger and uncontrollable laughter. GREAT book! I got to meet him one time, along with Ed and Markos when he did a live airing of Air America in San Fran.

His book really opened my eyes and ignited my passion for politics. The bottom line, politics does matter.

**SeattleGirl** · 03-17-2011, 09:34 PM

The 1980 election between Reagan and Carter. Specifically, voting day. It was my first vote in a major election and I was excited. Just before I went to vote, the damned news media announced that Carter had conceded to Reagan (5:00 Pacific time). I voted anyway (for Carter) and I know it would not have made any difference, given that Reagan won in a blow-out, but still, I felt that my vote had been taken away from me before I even voted.

That fueled my passion about voting (I have been able to convert a number of non-voters into voters over the years), which then fueled a passion for politics.

That passion really hotted up when Bush the Lesser announced he was running for President. I basically knew nothing about him, but on a deep-seated gut level, I just knew that man would bring nothing but ruin to the US. The passion I have for pretty much all things political has not waned.

P.S. I've read "Lies and The Lying Liars Who Tell Them" also, and agree -- it's a great book!

**KonaKane** · 03-17-2011, 09:42 PM

Seeing a picture of the body of a Kent State student, lying in a puddle of blood as a friend hovered over him, screaming. In the background were National Guardsmen on the march.

I was 14 when it happened.

***There Is No Spoon*** · 03-17-2011, 09:53 PM

Parents bringing me as a child to civil rights protests, anti-Vietnam protests & folk festivals. I learned that conservatives = Live and Let Die; i.e. when things go wrong they blame others and could give a crap if said others live or die. Self-absorbed. No Compassion. Anti-Jesus' teachings, yet they call themselves "Christians". Everything any decent mom would not want their child to become. I'm interested in politics to ensure that these narcissistic cretins don't destroy our country.

**Cha** · 03-17-2011, 10:04 PM

I just thought I should start paying attention in 1999 since I was going to count on Social Security for my retirement..and then friggin bush-cheney happened(I too was "devastated").. and it went way beyond SS.

I was way late to the party but once I got there I never left.

Yes, I found out politics do matter..especially now with the air we breathe, the food we eat, the future of our Planet for our children..our very lives depend on being involved. Progress in Numbers! Bounce

**Dimwitted Fool** · 03-17-2011, 10:13 PM

College in the '60s-- who wasn't political?

(And there was this commie hippie woman...)

**Shea** · 03-17-2011, 10:51 PM

The Vietnam war.

It was crushing to see George McGovern lose 49 states; on the upside, I was living in Massachusetts -- the only blue state that election.

**Capn Sunshine** · (This post was last modified: 03-18-2011 12:17 AM by Capn Sunshine.)

Family tradition. My Great Great Great Grandfather was involved with the Jackson Administration. People in my family enter government service early and many of my relatives have worked for Presidential administrations or other branches of government, mainly State. My namesake (grandfather) worked with Roosevelt and Truman. My uncles worked for Kennedy in the State Dept. I have worked in campaigns , both local and national, since 1962. I worked in the anti War movement, with SDS and then Student Mobilization Committee. I was a California liason for a coalition of antiwar groups and the Democratic Party. Worked with Gray Davis when he was Jerry Brown's right hand man. I worked with Howard Dean for three years and Jim Dean for three more. I worked with the Obama Campaign early; we had the organization in place before he agreed to run. I'm currently a member of the Democratic Party of California's Central Committee, and a delegate for my assembly district. I have some great stories if you're buyin'.

**sandnsea** · 03-18-2011, 12:39 AM

When Small Boys Ask Why

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/04/23...ys-ask-why

**RoyGBiv** · 03-18-2011, 01:29 AM

(03-18-2011 12:39 AM)sandnsea Wrote: When Small Boys Ask Why

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/04/23...ys-ask-why

Very nice.

I hadn't read that before. Thanks for sharing.

**Hekate** · 03-18-2011, 01:14 AM

I was just a college kid, and at 20 years and a few months, too young to vote in the June primary in California. But a rather charismatic and intense Poli Sci major my age named Bob kept coming back to town to visit his girlfriend and we'd all sit up and drink coffee at an all-night coffee shop and talk about the sad state of the world. One night he said there was a Democratic Senator who was going to run for president on an anti-Vietnam war platform, and it wasn't Bobby Kennedy who was still thinking it over.

Next thing I knew we were meeting an advance man, attending fundraising parties held by the wife of a local doctor, and renting a storefront on the main drag. I'd never even had my own checking account, and all of a sudden I was the signatory for the account for our headquarters.

It was a great experience, and despite its heartbreaking end with the assassination of RFK and the subsequent Chicago Dem Convention debacle, all of my community activism since then has stemmed from that formative time.

**RoyGBiv** · 03-18-2011, 01:48 AM

I have to go with the family tradition answer. I've told this story in various ways with various starting points. What that means is that there's really not one thing that kicked it off. It was a lot of things, and whenever this question is raised, I tend to focus on a new one than the last time.

So, here's a new one.

I don't remember a time when politics wasn't in my mind. My mother was largely apolitical, at least outwardly, but Grandma never failed to offer her opinion and let me know how those opinions came to be. She and my mother raised me. My father was gone, and Grandpa died when I was 4. It was just us, but then that wasn't new for Grandma. Through most of her life it had been "just her" in some sense.

She and two of her sisters were the first people in the family to go to college. They were followed by a brother, but they all remained the smart ones, though they never really advertised it. When my grandma died, I was cleaning out some of her things and found the leather cover for three of her Master of Science degrees, which I'd never known she had. It was this education and the experience she and her sisters went through getting it and then trying to use it that made them political, and they all passed it on to me.

I watched the news with Grandma, and she would comment on things. I took all of it in. I was aware at the age of 6 that there was this man named Nixon who had just resigned in disgrace because he was in fact a crook. I knew there was this man named Jimmy Carter, "a good Southern boy," who was going to try to set things right again. I knew "that old bastard" Reagan "lied his way" into the White House and that he was probably going to get us into a war that would kill all of us.

So it was always there.

Grandma died on a Wednesday. The day before I had voted in a primary election, and before I voted I went to visit her where she was resting in bed, still attempting to recover from her leg amputation and not looking forward to the dialysis treatment she'd have to go to the next morning. She asked me who I was voting for. I told her. She asked why. I told her that as well. "You'll be okay, son." She said she was tired and went off to sleep while I cast my ballot.

Grandma had to fight to be allowed to vote, had to fight to be heard to get her education, and to be able to feed her family. She fought under circumstances that few of us alive today would ever understand. She told me I'd be okay, and I owe it to her memory to try to be. One way I do that is not letting the bastards win and always, always remembering to exercise my right as a citizen to make myself heard.

**Treestar** · 03-18-2011, 02:31 AM

Family tradition; Dad campaigned for a local candidate in 1968. I went with him in the car as he drove around the neighborhood with a bullhorn telling everyone to vote for this guy. Kids ran after the car yelling "Nixon! Nixon!" (guess their parents were Republicans).

In the 8th grade, it was the 1972 election and the student body of my junior high was really into the election. Everyone wore buttons for their candidate, and may have just been reflecting their parents. I still remember my blue McGovern button!

**Julie** · 03-18-2011, 05:28 AM

Election theft 2000 did it for me. By 2002 I was in full overthrow-the-government mode.

Julie

**Eponine** · 03-18-2011, 08:14 AM

The 1956 Democratic National Convention. I was about seven at the time, but sick a lot (bad tonsils0 and had to stay indoors most of the time because of the polio scare. The conventions were on during the day back then and I was rapt. And then there was the 1960 election. I was hooked.

**jaxx** · 03-18-2011, 09:54 AM

I was the kid who watched the conventions on tv starting in 1952 when I was 6 years old. My Mom and Dad were Democrats but we always watched both conventions...to compare my Dad told me. To this day I watch them and I love the crazy shit that goes on....and my favorite phrase "The great state of Illinois casts it's votes for" whichever year it was.

It really heated up for me in 1963 when JFK was shot and on to 1968, the first year I could vote...when it was 21 back then. I was married and will never forget those damned selective service things coming through the mail at a measured pace. They were terrorizing to a young couple who didn't believe in the rotten war.

I don't think I could imagine life without politics. It's interesting, it's maddening, and it's downright scary at times. But not knowing or not giving a damn.....that's not in my bones. I was brought up to vote and to let my voice be known when I agreed or disagreed with anything. Gawd, I was so lucky.

**RoyGBiv** · 03-18-2011, 10:00 AM

(03-18-2011 09:54 AM)jaxx Wrote: I don't think I could imagine life without politics. It's interesting, it's maddening, and it's downright scary at times. But not knowing or not giving a damn.....that's not in my bones.

I just can't wrap my head around not voting.

I get irritated at people who don't vote, but I get downright pissed at people who encourage others not to vote. I am as cynical as they come, but I still know that not doing anything is worse than doing something.

And while it should, it still does amaze me at how many people who do nothing but complain about government have never voted in their lives.

***There Is No Spoon*** · 03-18-2011, 10:39 AM

(03-18-2011 10:00 AM)RoyGBiv Wrote:
(03-18-2011 09:54 AM)jaxx Wrote: I don't think I could imagine life without politics. It's interesting, it's maddening, and it's downright scary at times. But not knowing or not giving a damn.....that's not in my bones.

I just can't wrap my head around not voting.

I get irritated at people who don't vote, but I get downright pissed at people who encourage others not to vote. I am as cynical as they come, but I still know that not doing anything is worse than doing something.

And while it should, it still does amaze me at how many people who do nothing but complain about government have never voted in their lives.

Strangely (not), I was kinda psyched when I found out that the right-wing nut job who's always blathering on using 1980's Republican talking points has never voted in his life. Whatanasshole!

**SeattleGirl** · 03-18-2011, 12:07 PM

(03-18-2011 10:00 AM)RoyGBiv Wrote:
(03-18-2011 09:54 AM)jaxx Wrote: I don't think I could imagine life without politics. It's interesting, it's maddening, and it's downright scary at times. But not knowing or not giving a damn.....that's not in my bones.

I just can't wrap my head around not voting.

I get irritated at people who don't vote, but I get downright pissed at people who encourage others not to vote. I am as cynical as they come, but I still know that not doing anything is worse than doing something.

And while it should, it still does amaze me at how many people who do nothing but complain about government have never voted in their lives.

Same here, Roy and jaxx. I absolutely do not get people who are either apathetic about voting, or worse, who deliberately don't vote to "teach so-and-so a lesson." Those are definitely head-banging attitudes to me.

**USArmyParatrooper** · 03-18-2011, 03:41 PM

(03-18-2011 12:07 PM)Punky Wrote: Same here, Roy and jaxx. I absolutely do not get people who are either apathetic about voting, or worse, who deliberately don't vote to "teach so-and-so a lesson." Those are definitely head-banging attitudes to me.

Yep, and in the case of WI, they sure taught those school teachers a lesson. Take that!

***azmouse*** · 03-19-2011, 12:40 PM

Like many here, I can't remember a time when I wasn't interested in politics. I watched the 1976 Democratic convention with fascination as a 15 yo.
But it was the election of 2000 and hearing the idiot RW here in AZ actually sound proud about the SC selecting Bush and destroying democracy that lit a fire under me. After that I had to learn more about our political system and what was being said. It's all lead me to being here on DFP and I couldn't be happier about that.

**NYC Liberal** · (This post was last modified: 03-19-2011 10:53 PM by NYC Liberal.)

My grandmother. She was always a news/political junkie and even when I was a young kid, we used to always follow the news together. And it seemed like every time there was a major event, we were together when it happened. The first "big" thing I really remember getting interested in and following was the Clinton impeachment.

Almost everyone in my family (especially on my mom's side) is a liberal Democrat, so that's part of it too. My favorite story that my grandmother told me was about her dad. They lived in a pretty small town and he was well known and they were fairly well off. They had a big family too and they had a pew in the church right up front. This was in the late 30s...one Sunday the priest was giving his homily and started going off on Eleanor Roosevelt and calling her all sorts of horrible things (a whore, etc). Right in the middle of this, my great-grandfather told the whole family (himself, his wife, five kids and I believe two or three of his sisters) to get up and marched them out. And then later he called this priest and gave it to him, told him he didn't want to hear his right-wing crap at Mass. Big Grin

**DFW** · 03-20-2011, 02:02 AM

Family tradition for me, too. My grandmother was a NYC labor secretary under LaGuardia, and her husband was deputy mayor under Wagner, ended up his career on the NY State Supreme Court. My dad became a journalist and moved to northern Virginia to cover DC, so I was part of the first generation of southern-born members of my family since some of my mom's ancestors fled the Mississippi delta to NY to hide from riverboat gambling debts after the Civil War (!!). My dad was a Washington print correspondent, became president of the Gridiron Club, was introducing me to House Reps and senators before I even knew what a senator was. By the time I got introduced to my first president (LBJ) I sure as hell knew what a president was!

**jaxx** · 03-20-2011, 02:41 AM

Some really good stories here, I love reading them.

**laurcunningham** · 03-20-2011, 07:16 AM

(03-17-2011 09:22 PM)USArmyParatrooper Wrote: Al Franken's book, "Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them" was the book that really got me into politics. I started to pay attention during the 2000 Clinton impeachment trials. I had joined the Marine Corps reserves (now active Army) in 1995. My civilian career was taking off. I was happy. I got out of the USMCr in 2001, and the entire time the prospect of going to war seemed completely unreal to me. During the 2000 Republican primaries the big debate was - who can beat Gore during a time of "peace and prosperity" (their words). I was deeply devastated when Bush ended up taking it. I despised Fox News and couldn't believe anyone could think they're 'Fair and Balanced'

In any event, later down the road I picked up that book. As I was reading it I kept saying, "Holy crap! That's right! I remember that!" The book had a strange combination of hilarious humor and some hard truth. It constantly shifted me back and forth between extreme anger and uncontrollable laughter. GREAT book! I got to meet him one time, along with Ed and Markos when he did a live airing of Air America in San Fran.

His book really opened my eyes and ignited my passion for politics. The bottom line, politics does matter.

My mother has always been an extremely political person, and always felt it was very important that my sister and I had an understanding of what was happening in the world around us. At the time, it bored the bageebees out of me (when I was younger), but once I was old enough to vote, September 11 happened, my family in NY couldn't reach me (and I couldn't reach them), Bush destroyed our country, and the entire country was turned upside down... that's when I really started putting two and two together with what I learned growing up, and started to get into politics more.

**Ikonoklast** · 03-20-2011, 02:34 PM

Not really sure, but I think it is genetic.

My parents discussing politics around the kitchen table with friends and neighbors, me at the end listening to them...Dad was a Democratic volunteer for JFK in our ward, and I never looked back.

Joining a Union at age seventeen and being an active member for 24 years just kept things going...there was always a campaign that needed help.

I blame most of it on being Irish. Politics is like mother's milk to a Fenian.

**Peadar O Suileabhain** · 03-20-2011, 06:13 PM

Genetics.

My grandfathers took part in the Irish uprising against British rule in the early 20th century; one of them did time in a prison in Cork as a result.

When they came to this country, my grandparents became staunch Democrats. My maternal grandfather joined a union and served on his local Democratic committee. When he died in the 1970s, his congressman, Tip O'Neill, came to the wake.

My father was a volunteer for John Kerry's unsuccessful anti-war congressional race in 1972. My dad and Kerry were both Navy vets who had returned from Vietnam disillusioned with the conflict. My mother was one of the idealistic early-1960s JFK Democrats, a distinctly different creature from the late-'60s type that gets most of the attention. In his books, President Obama describes his mother (born the same year as my mom, oddly enough) as being cut from this same cloth.

Being a Democrat was part of who we were and are. The Mo Udall button in my father's desk was a sacred icon of sorts. There were only two times I remember my parents going different ways in a presidential race; in 1980, my father supported Carter while my mother went with John Anderson (both had voted for Ted Kennedy in the primary). When I hit my teens, they had no problem hauling me around southern NH to meet George McGovern, Fritz Hollings, Jesse Jackson, and all sorts of state and local political figures.