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In high school is when I really started to develop a political identity. During that time I was hanging with a pretty politically active group that consisted of a few skins and punks. Their idea of fighting the establishment and having total liberty was something I embraced when I was younger, but I still held myself to a different set of morals and values, and it was those morals and values which kept me apart from that crowd. For instance, I've never agreed with abortion as a form of birth control (since I feel like that is ducking responsibility) but they were fine with it. I didn't agree with going out and drinking and using drugs as a kid (because of the illegality and lack of interest), but they did. I never agreed with stealing from others (since I'm not entitled to the results of someone's work), but they were cool with it. I never believed in hurting people unnecessarily, but they wouldn't hesitate to pick a fight with the rednecks, jocks or wannabe gangstas. I grew to hate them and their ways so I stopped talking to them because I wanted to be better than them.

I'm sure some of you remember reading stories about my parents and their youth, and how the early parts of my life were spent in my parents company, hitch-hiking across the country, sleeping in corn fields and on beaches, and begging for food. They've worked two jobs and lived paycheck-to-paycheck nearly all their lives, starting at their ages of twelve, and knowing how they worked at a young age to help their families, I started doing the same. When I was thirteen and fourteen I started mowing lawns and shoveling drive ways so I could provide for myself; clothes, toys, games, skateboards, etc. When I was fifteen I started working at the Commissary as a bag boy making only tips. That job is the one I carried through high school and it afforded me a couple used vehicles, money to pay my bills, buy my gas, my lunch money and my clothes. My parents noticed my efforts and my father told me (on my 16th birthday) that he saw me as a man and would treat me like one as long as I continued acting like a man; paying my bills, holding a job, doing well in my studies, etc. That was a defining moment in my life because I looked up to my father and he looked on me as an equal. They also taught me everything they knew about managing, investing and building what little money they had. My family and our experiences imparted an important lesson on me; money and possessions are earned and nothing is free. For these reasons, I've always believed in fiscal conservatism, living within our means, buying only what we can afford and being charitable with our time and money when we can. Also, since I've been working for over half my life, I don't appreciate people who didn't work as hard (or haven't worked at all like some collegiate progressives) thinking they're entitled to any hardworking persons money.

Socially, I have no one turning point in my beliefs. They're just things that I've developed over the years after meeting some pretty shitty people that lack responsibility, drive and the will to be anything other than worthless. I've tried to distance myself from most of the people I don't agree with (minus half the retards on this forum) but I'm always meeting new people (normally progressives) who want to lower the bar so everyone can be included and that disgusts me. Only the strong survive, mah friends.

You overlook the good fortune you had to be white, physically able, and from a stable family. Not everyone is so fortunate, and for those from difficult backgrounds, "getting out" is not so easy as you like to think.

So when I throw a jab at someone who is supposed to be on the'open minded' side of the aisle for being closed minded' that triggers all that aestu verbal diarrhea? Ok.

I used to hate abortion. Now im ok with it.

I used to hate gay marriage. Now im ok with it.

I used to be cool with the wars in the middle east. Now im sick of them and want way too different of an entire sequence of events to bother typing it on a phone.

Who's closed minded?

Aestu it was a joke at someone being 'open minded' but in the same breath saying 'im not ever gonna change ever!' Im sorry you can't get jokes with your head so far up your own ass but at least you had some corn oil left over to make that insertion easier, right?

There are plenty of non-caucasian disabled people from broken homes setting a good example. It's amazing what happens when people refuse to see themselves as disadvantaged victims and just do what they want.

There are those who say that the old Spirit of ’76 is dead...that we no longer have the strength of character, the idealism, the faith in our founding purposes that that spirit represents.

Those who say this do not know America.

We have been undergoing self-doubts and self-criticism. But these are only the other side of our growing sensitivity to the persistence of want in the midst of plenty, of our impatience with the slowness with which old ills are being overcome.

If we were indifferent to the shortcomings of our society, or complacent about our institutions, or blind to the lingering inequities...then we would have lost our way.

But the fact that we have those concerns is evidence that our ideals, deep down, are still strong. Indeed, they remind us that what is really best about America is its compassion. They remind us that in the final analysis, America is great not because it is strong, not because it is rich, but because this is a good country.

You've never written anything short and concise since I've known you. It's like there's something in your brain that says, "why use a sentence when an essay will do?"

You overlook the good fortune you had to be white, physically able, and from a stable family. Not everyone is so fortunate, and for those from difficult backgrounds, "getting out" is not so easy as you like to think.

I guess my point is your assertion that my (or anyones) background is less difficult because we were born to a different race or stable family is... well, fucking stupid.

Neither of us can say with any certainty because that's not the life I was born into, so continuing down that road would be a waste of time.

If you think a few paragraphs is an "essay" then you need to develop more patience and discipline, and watch less TV. The very fact people think this way is historically unprecedented and psychologically aberrant, and it's a major factor in the decline of our country.

No one can make understand a problem or make good decisions about anything if they dismiss anything more than a paragraph long as TLDR.

I am sorry that life is not as simple as you'd prefer.