Yes. But not very quickly. It takes time to think things through. I became way more liberal on most issues except for guns. Leaving made me more pro gun.
Still not a fan of bonds 'cuz the average Joe doesn't understand the downside of compound interest, when you are on the wrong side of it. Other than that, I got more liberal, including when it costs me money.
I have had an awakening to the rights of gay people. I think churches should pay income and property taxes, since they receive the same police and fire protection as businesses and homeowners. And they should stop trying to ban alternate lifestyles, which I find xenophobic. And that goes for you, Islam. Major offender.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/2014 03:32PM by donbagley.
Actually, my big political shift pre-dated by my leaving TSCC.
There were a lot of things that were articles of faith among conservatives that really started me questioning.
The GWB presidency and more specifically the lies leading to the Iraq war, the use of mercenaries (excuse me, "security contractors"), legalized torture, and the cavalier attitude about it all deeply shook me.
The housing bubble and financial meltdown, the subsequent bailout and a government that spent billions to preserve the fortunes of billionaires while doing very little to protect and preserve the middle class was another thing that rocked my political foundation.
Another thing was an economics class I took from a wonderful professor that taught us where to go for economic data. It became pretty clear that the entire Republican claim of being the fiscally responsible party was horse shit. Likewise the claim that low taxes lead to economic expansion - another oft-used political line that is completely unsupportable by the data. Or the stupid tea party rants against monetary expansion along with their predictions of hyperinflation that were completely wrong - we've barely managed to stayed out of a Japan style deflationary spiral.
Lastly, I grew increasingly disgusted with Republican positions on social issues as I began to open up and see things from outside of a Mormon perspective. I saw more and more how the Republican party uses social issues and race as wedge issues to get people who by all logic should be Democrats to vote against their own interests.
For a few years, I tried to be a liberal Mormon. I used teachings from the New Testament to justify my liberal viewpoints.
In the end though, I think ETB was correct. You really can't be both a political liberal and a good Mormon. Being liberal means being open-minded, progressive, egalitarian. Being a good Mormon means restoring a deeply regressive past and being a sheep that thinks and does as he is told and commitment to a rigid social order.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/2014 04:40AM by Strength in the Loins.
I know that there is a lot of literature about physical hard wiring between conservatives and liberals and I have often wondered if the hard wire is "nutured in" or is "nature"... so for example do you think that you were more likely to experience difficulties with the church that led you out and then "more liberal" because it was innate? Or after out your nutured part was malleable to change?
In reading FLDS exit stories some have commented there inability to bow was innate and forced them out
I think this whole issue is fascinating in terms of a larger collective democracy which premised on nuture not nature
Yes. First presidential election I was eligible to vote in was 1980. I voted for Reagan and a Republican ticket. Not because I'd studied the issues, but because that's what all the mormon adults I knew were doing (and I was TBM at the time).
I left in 1981. Now I study the issues and vote for whom I consider the best candidate. That's *usually* a Democrat, but not always. I've voted for individual Repubicans, Independents, Greens, and others. Now I think instead of follow the herd :)
I absolutely changed my politics. Or rather, I should say I started paying attention to politics when I left in 2004, and found that I didn't agree with anything the right said. My ex started listening to Rush Limbaugh, and any time I heard him I found him horrifying. My intro to politics also came from watching The West Wing. So now, I guess I'm an ex Mormon, hippie dippy liberal.
Not really, I am libertarian, not the Glenn Beck sort of fake libertarian, a true libertarian as I have been for a long time. I never fit in with the conservative or liberal mormons I knew.
As a Mormon I was very liberal. Since I left religion I have become conservative. I'm not the "Create-Your-Own-Jesus hates gay people but loves guns" type of conservative though. Instead, I'm the "tax churches, stay out of wars and support limited government" type of conservative.
There aren't a lot of conservatives who are like me though, so it is hard for me to use the word "conservative."
I used to be a libertarian. I was very liberal on social issues but was far right on financial/economic issues. I was also very young, very naive and didn't really understand how things worked.
I am now a far left democrat. A Noam Chomsky type of liberal. You could say I'm somewhat of a socialist(socialism is not communism for you right wingers out there). I just believe in a level playing field for everybody. I believe people have certain rights. I believe that people want to work hard but you just have to create that space for them.
Politics come down to what you believe about people. As a mormon I thought little of people(pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, don't mooch of people, it's your fault if you're poor). Now I think very highly of every living thing. I also no longer believe that jesus is going to come save us so we have to protect the environment at all costs. There is no plan B. There is nobody to save us. We have to save us. If we lose jobs at the cost of a healthier ecosystem, so be it. If we have to adjust our standards of living so be it.
Chomsky (and largely Anarcho-syndicalism) has influenced a lot of how I view politics too. Even though I personally take a more right wing approach to how I think of government, a lot of my thoughts come from what he has written and said.
My political shift started during my mission, about seven years before leaving the church.
I was in an impoverished third world country, that had just ended a long civil war. The US government under Reagan had funded death squads and I witnessed what those squads had done. While the left also committed war crimes, most were committed by the pro government right.
Naturally, since most of the people who would listen to us were poor and disadvantaged, I started listening to them...I realized that hard work was important, but that our station in life can't be remedied through hard work alone. Many people we taught worked 6 days a week, 12-14 hours a day in "free trade zone" factories. They were physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted. They were exploited by corporations, and lived in constant fear for the future. When we asked them "what do you think is the purpose of life, their only answer was "to suffer".
Yes, I reevaluated all my core values and beliefs, including political ones (I actually wrote them down and revisit occasionally). I excluded judgment and black and white thinking on many issue. I included tolerance, gray areas, and love for others. Boner.
I've always been independent, and never voted a straight party line for either Democrat or Republican. I was still considered a black sheep because in the election before I joined, I didn't vote for Bush. I also voted No on the predecessor to Prop H8.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/2014 07:17PM by adoylelb.