How old were you when you actually understood politics enough to choose a party or affiliation?

[Dark_Ansem]

i instinctively knew that donald trump was the greatest political candidate in history moments after i was born

A prodigious infant you must have been, indeed.

 

[DinohScene]

Never cared for politics, will never care for it either.
I've voted once when I was 18, never again.

 

[InsaneNutter]

I think by my mid 20s I realised none of the three main parties in the UK represented the interests of the average person.

I always vote because so many people died so we have the right to vote, it would be nice to feel their really was a person / party worth voting for however, rather then voting for the "best of a bad bunch".

 

[Dark_Ansem]

I think by my mid 20s I realised none of the three main parties in the UK represented the interests of the average person.

I always vote because so many people died so we have the right to vote, it would be nice to feel their really was a person / party worth voting for however, rather then voting for the "best of a bad bunch".

This is a sensible attitude that I respect.

 

[The Catboy]

My politics changed a lot over the years because I honestly see no value in clinging to political affiliation with absolute certainty. I have been throwing away my vote since 2016 and have been voting for Vermin Supreme

 

[Dark_Ansem]

voting for Vermin Supreme

you'll have to be more specific

 

[tabzer]

Never cared for politics, will never care for it either.
I've voted once when I was 18, never again.

Imagine if everyone shared that sentiment. How would we solve problems without middlemen to game and profit off both sides.

 

[zxr750j]

If you don't vote you don't get to bitch about it so I always attend. In Holland we've got like 18 parties so lots to choose from but not 1 thinks the same as me (obviously). So I choose the one closest to my thinking. I've been doing this since my 18th birthday...

 

[Dark_Ansem]

So I choose the one closest to my thinking

which is?

 

[RichardTheKing]

I don't know; I don't care about "parties" much, but I definitely know I'm more 'conservative' in some areas, and 'progressive' in others.

Like, I do think housewifery should be promoted more, so children have at least one parent they can rely on being present (and to save on needless childcare fees - that should be an occasional expense, if there's something major happening, not a daily cost), but I also think we should minimise road and car expenditure and prioritise public transport (trains especially, but also buses) and bicycle support (bike lanes with barriers against cars, for example).

Also, I absolutely despise religion as a concept, so I'm all for removing the rampant Christian influence on our governments, education systems, and more. We also need more domestic abuse shelters and support for male victims - more recognition of male victims, of the various misandristic double standards.

 

[Dark_Ansem]

Like, I do think housewifery should be promoted more, so children have at least one parent they can rely on being present (and to save on needless childcare fees - that should be an occasional expense, if there's something major happening, not a daily cost)

So I'm assuming you also think that all salaries need to be doubled to take into account single-salary households simply cannot survive?

 

[FAST6191]

Categorisation is one of the main lines of pondering in science and it works well enough for political science as well, though even more contentious than biology (is horseshoe theory correct likely to get even more heated than classification of animals). Voting maths has also fascinated me since I was introduced to it... primary school I saw little cliques of girls influence class votes more than arguments (thus the need to tailor the argument if the cliques would unduly influence things, also reason why anonymous voting is essential) but it would a few more years until a more formal model appeared.

UK wise it is same shit different day and I live/have my registered address places largely so overwhelmingly one way that it is pointless, to say nothing of everybody has high ideals but reality is all corrupt as you like, economics say no and not like any one groups is suffering unduly that would make it morally questionable like it might be if I was in a fading Islamic theocracy or something. To that end never have, was not even registered when you had to be (think you are again by default) and meh.
There are places run for decades by a single party all the way down (and while the UK is not quite as into its states rights bit as the US there is a lot of autonomy) and they are not utopias, far from it in fact.

I could do the spoiler thing or vote swapping and there is the argument that them only paying attention to such things means gradually move the needle and all that. Meh.

voting for Vermin Supreme

you'll have to be more specific

He is a joke candidate (think monster raving looney party for a broad equivalent) that always runs for US president. Quite amusing and for an American pretty sharp underneath it all.

 

[Dark_Ansem]

He is a joke candidate (think monster raving looney party for a broad equivalent) that always runs for US president. Quite amusing and for an American pretty sharp underneath it all.

Oh an actual one, i thought it was an euphemism

 

[x65943]

Was raised cradle Republican, voted for them until Trump

Now I vote third party, the political system in this country is broken. FPTP voting leads to two party duopoly that is bad for the country

Would love if we had STV like Ireland for instance and a multiparty parliamentary system that allowed representation for more than 2 voices - the current system leads to hyperpolarization and the current gridlock in Washington

 

[Hanafuda]

I was a patchouli stinking hippie in the 80's, hated Reagan and hung out with a bunch of commie trustafarians. (It's easy to embrace communism when mommy and daddy are rich.) I'm a fairly conservative libertarianish person now. On fiscal issues I'm very conservative, on social issues also very "conservative" in the sense that the federal government should be about 1/50th its current size and shouldn't be in the social engineering business at all. Federal law and authority should be limited to only what the Constitution grants it ... build the roads, run the post office, issue currency, provide for defense/military (including secure borders), and resolve disputes between states. Otherwise stay the fuck out of peoples' lives. And there is nothing in the Constitution that gives the legislative branch (Congress) the authority to delegate away most of its job to a slew of alphabet-soup administrative agencies that answer to the executive branch. As radical as it sounds, none of those bureaucratic agencies should even exist without an amendment.

So since my politics seems to be an evolving process rather than something I suddenly acquired upon reaching a certain age, and there is certainly no "party" that is aligned with my thinking, I don't have an answer to the question.

 

[Bunjolio]

i dont care for politics

 

[Dark_Ansem]

hated Reagan

With very good reason, history hasn't comprehended yet how calamitous he was.

FPTP voting leads to two party duopoly that is bad for the country

Confirmed, FPTP is bad in general and extremely pernicious in the present day.

 

[x65943]

i dont care for politics

That's a good way to make sure you and people like you will never be prioritized by those in power

Aka bad idea

 

[Bunjolio]

That's a good way to make sure you and people like you will never be prioritized by those in power

Aka bad idea

u right, im just not old enough to do anything rn tbh

 

[zxr750j]

which is?

A left-wing party for sure, maybe the party for the animals (allthough they have stupid standpoints).
Best for me would be a right-wing party but I can't vote that way...