Have your political beliefs changed?

[JoeyA]

I`ve always been conservative but of course fell into the neocon trap.RP`s stance against the IRS is what caused the snownall affect with me.

 

[cujothekitten]

I have been a libertarian for as long as I can remember. As of late I've switched to full blown ancap, though I prefer Voluntaryist. Capitalism is a scary word to anarchists of a socialist flavor.

 

[LibertiORDeth]

Yep. Mainly my stance on war. I was an average pro-war Republican before RP.

 

[TheConstitutionLives]

bump

 

[ronpaulfan]

I used to be pro-choice, anti-gun, anti-drug and pro-socialism

Dr. Paul has changed my views about damn-near everything (even evolution )

 

[Paulitician]

I'm slightly more libertarian (minarchist) when it comes to federal government but that's about it. I've always considered myelf a centrist leaning libertarian.

 

[daniroyer]

Ever since supporting Paul?

I've been a democrat all my life and was planning on voting for Hillary Clinton. Intially I started supporting Paul because of his foriegn policy views, but now I'm finding that I agree with him on everything.

I guess that makes me an old school conservative-libertarian lol

Anyone else's views change overtime?

Well, I did swear never to vote for an anti-choice candidate...

Other than that, I've always had conservative economic views and was very libritarian. Though, I've always been registered with "no party affiliation".

I've just never found a candidate that echoed my views so closely (except the anti-choice thing, but we've got bigger fish to fry before we can focus on that) until Ron Paul.

So no, they haven't changed. I just now have someone I can fully put my heart behind!

 

[Aspie Minarcho-Capitalist]

When I was a child I always had a communistic mindset and wanted everything to be free, that was until I was a young teenager who was studying the management of private enterprises in secondary school when I finally grasped the idea that capitalism as well as a secure government was a necessity to sustain a stabilized society, but upheld no knowledge of the political statist spectrum continuum and how the Labour Party vs Conservative Party (UK) left and right framework were administrated.

In August 2012 after becoming skeptical of the US Food and Drug Administration's corporate maleficences over covering up the dangers of synthetic substances like aspartame, I began to study the left and right wing framework in the UK and contemplated on what I felt endowed the truth. It then occurred to me that I was highly critical of the progressive liberalism of modern society (especially political correctness, overly permissive lifestyles, and open border policies) advocated by egalitarians and the long term effects of the burdensome welfare state (I was shocked to the find out the extortionate amount of taxes needed to redistribute for the funding of such social welfare programmes, most of which I believed were inducing dependency on the state), but I pinpointed out that were was no significant discrepancies between either of the parties and were completely equal on an authoritarian domestic, social and foreign policy.

Neither of the two main parties were fiscally conservative, nor could they reduce the national debt, and at the same time seemed to impose a nanny statist herd mentality amongst society. This inevitably led to my disgruntled skepticism of the left and right paradigm in early 2013 and immediately absorbed myself into the alternative media (despite my atheism) which helped me unveil many of my subconscious libertarian leanings (freedom of speech, freedom of association, gun rights, civil liberties, recreational drug use etc) and stimulate my gradual antagonistic resistance to socialism.

In May 2014 I came across Ron Paul out of nowhere and learned from him the truth about big government and the US Federal Reserve bank, as well as the fact that our liberties and freedoms are drained by a crony state monopolistic corporate capitalist system that is directly attributed to Keynesian interventionism (including central planning), prohibitionism, excessive regulations (other than the 1933 Glass Stegall act), governmentally stipulated "free trade" agreements (NAFTA, WTO and the upcoming TTIP) that are imposing mercantilist measures for transnational corporate monopolies, the international debt based monetary system, fractional reserve lending and intergovernmental central banking institutions such as the IMF, the BIS and the World Bank.

I now consider myself a conservative-leaning libertarian (even though I'm a natural born non-theist) after researching about him and when you consider political changes I would say that most Ron Paul supporters were formerly disillusioned neo-conservatives before joining the liberty movement. Hopefully another candidate who follows Austrian Economics (Mises/Rothbardian variant) will show up in the future (including the UK) and will get elected.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

Well, since we're reviving this thread...

No, my political views haven't really changed over the years.

I've been a libertarian since I was politically aware at all.

...and always a minarchist libertarian: never bought into anarcho-capitalism.

What's changed over the years is my understand of economics (much improved) and my opinion of democracy (much lowered).

 

[PierzStyx]

Ever since supporting Paul?

I've been a democrat all my life and was planning on voting for Hillary Clinton. Intially I started supporting Paul because of his foriegn policy views, but now I'm finding that I agree with him on everything.

I guess that makes me an old school conservative-libertarian lol

Anyone else's views change overtime?

I've gone from a neocon to a minarchist/anarchist.

 

[Crashland]

I supported Huckabee in 2008, Gingrich in 2012, so yeah my political beliefs have changed.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

I supported Huckabee in 2008, Gingrich in 2012, so yeah my political beliefs have changed.

Seriously?

P.S. No insult incoming, just surprised, as you're quite the solid libertarian nowadays (never would have guessed you were anything but).

I'd be interested in hearing about your "conversion experience," as it were.

 

[HVACTech]

I supported Huckabee in 2008, Gingrich in 2012, so yeah my political beliefs have changed.

that is a joke.. right?

 

[Crashland]

Seriously?

P.S. No insult incoming, just surprised, as you're quite the solid libertarian nowadays (never would have guessed you were anything but).

I'd be interested in hearing about your "conversion experience," as it were.

that is a joke.. right?

Basically just a combination of becoming more informed on economics, getting my info from a more wide variety of sources other than places like Fox News. Also, prior to 2007, I had started seriously questioning my religious beliefs. I ended up changing those beliefs and managed to come out of it okay. I think having experienced that made me more comfortable with, and feel the need to, take a microscope to my political positions as well in the next few years. (Being an atheist in the Mike Huckabee grassroots was...interesting.) My views on social issues changed first, then being able to fully understand and break from the right-left paradigm was important, and foreign policy came last. I remember thinking that Ron Paul was bat-shit crazy in 2008. By 2012, I was one of those people who thought Ron had a lot of great points on economics but didn't agree with his foreign policy because it sounded too extreme. After the 2012 election I had a visceral disgust with Mitt Romney and the GOP and I wanted a libertarian coalition, so as of the day after the election I was on board with Rand, the one guy best positioned to do it. Found RPF in Jan 2013 and lurked for a bit. I give some credit to Rand (and RPF!) for helping to change my mind on foreign policy. Which is why, btw, I really don't criticize Rand's toned down rhetoric on foreign policy because that is the rhetoric that eased me into realizing I basically agreed with everything Ron had been saying in the first place.

 

[Christian Liberty]

Yeah I went from libertarian to ancap to libertarian and now I'm a theonomist.

 

[TheTexan]

For a long time I was on Mama June's side of the Mark McDaniel scandal, then for a little while I sided with Sugar Bear, now I've grown more into the thought that they are both wrong, they need to work their shit out, boo boo needs both her parents

 

[osan]

I've been a democrat all my life...

It is my sincere hope they invent a pill for this one day.

and was planning on voting for Hillary Clinton.

Egad... it was a truly acute case, I see.

Intially I started supporting Paul because of his foriegn policy views, but now I'm finding that I agree with him on everything.

In that case, you are no democrat. Not even close, no matter what you may otherwise think.

 

[Sola_Fide]

Yeah I went from libertarian to ancap to libertarian and now I'm a theonomist.

There shall be a next step.

 

[osan]

...if more republicans were actually republican...

...I don't understand how the republican party is so afraid of that.

Actually, methinks you understand it quite perfectly.

 

[JK/SEA]

I voted for Bill Clinton twice, then became a State Delegate for Ron Paul in 08. Any effin questions?