[stevepaa]

Much like dd74.
I would say that I was a conservative when I was naive and hadn't seen much outside of my own rather lilly white working class community-we had one token black kid in high school who got suspended and transferred after being in a fight. I was pro Vietnam War in mid 60's, in ROTC my freshman college year, involved with Young Republicans, was in Student Senate as a "conservative", part of group which published an independent conservative college newspaper, became a born again Christian in a very conservative Baptist Church who almost preached that the catholic church was the anti-christ, and my friends worked on Nixon's 72 relection campaign. Then Watergate, the war got worse and I joined one protest against the war. Got a teaching job, thought I could take my Bible to school and put it on my desk as a reference-very naive. Married a wonderful Catholic woman and after three years as a teacher and even with both of us working I could not afford a house. Quit teaching, got my masters, became a rocket scientist and doubled my pay immediately, we bought a house and started raising a family in a very racially, ethnically, and religiously integrated suburb with many of them being recent immigrants.
I would mark my turning point at Watergate. So now I would say I am a social liberal in that I believe in helping people who can’t help themselves, and I know for certain that ***** happens to people through no fault of themselves and I view it as better to help them now than to pay more later when they sink lower. But I think I try to be a fiscal conservative sometimes in that we should get tangible results for money spent. I support my local schools but tend to vote down state wide bonds because it is irresponsible to add to the debt load for the future. I tend to give 5-10% of gross to charity. I believe there is no such thing as a free lunch, and we all need to ante up sometimes for the betterment of society and we each should be treated fairly and equitably without regard to our monetary wealth.