Social/cultural circles are probably the single greatest contributing factor to political lean and a lot of it comes down to experiences and exposure. That's why urban areas tend to be more liberal and rural areas tend to be more conservative. Education also plays a critical role. Research shows the more educated a person is the more liberal they often become.
I know this is 100% true for me. I leaned Republican in high school, but since graduating college (and spending several years in the media being exposed to a number of ideas and experiences) I'm now more liberal and often closely align with civil libertarians.
In Nebraska, I tend to believe the less exposed you are to different cultures and ideas the more you tend to lean right.
Enhance, please don't take this personally but that is a big broad brush overstatement if I ever saw one - the implication is - uneducated or unexposed = right leaning. Get real. Liberal arrogance at its best
( I know that wasn't your intent). I grew up democrat in S.D - can't get much more rural than that. I voted for George McGovern - can't get much more liberal than that. I went to college, completed my Masters, live in an urban area and have travel all around and been active in anti poverty/missions issues -& as a result I'm very conservative. Liberal ideas, while appearing on the outside to be well meaning,
some (to avoid my own broad brush - not all liberal programs) become anything but and end up enslaving / trapping the needy in their need. I believe in a good safety net for the poor and the govt can/does help with that along wt non-profits but at the very basis of conservatism is the idea of individual choice, responsibility, and
opportunity to get ahead. The war on poverty as shown in the liberal great society programs of LBJ ended up entrapping more in poverty,& fostering one parent families (irresponsible dad's off the hook as govt will pay for the kids needs). Don't dare say I don't care or that conservatives don't care about poverty issues and the poor - studies have shown that conservatives personally give more of their personal money on average to charities that help the poor. I believe conservatives care every bit as much as liberals - they just have a different path of trying to address those needs - regardless of how the media in general wants to paint it the other way around.
However, I won't throw the baby out wt the bath water. We need both liberal and conservative ideas in moderation. Govt should provide a role in helping the needy and creating safety nets but broader conservative economics should propel the society towards creating more opportunities so that the poor can find meaningful work (opportunity), have meaningful choices so they they can be responsible for their own needs.
Let me add: This is the problem wt our modern politics in general and Washington DC specifically. I think God places us all on this earth with a gift to give and if we don't take advantage of the gifts of others, we all lose out. One of those gifts is our political thought processes - which are morally neutral. Liberalism isn't evil nor is conservatism. But modern political argument makes it out that way. Just think what society would look like if we were open to taking the best ideas from both camps and work them in our society. Some of those ideas might seem to be opposed to each other like spending on social programs vs a balanced budget. However, if as the conservative claims more money comes into the treasury via conservative growth programs, then the money will exist to pay on all of the social safety nets that we need as a society. DC's problem is that it is a either/or and not a combined comprehensive look at the best ideas. So we go through the big swings - conservative president, liberal, conservative, liberal, etc Look at the last # of elections. 12 years of Reagan (including GHWB), 2 years of Clinton, 8 years of GWB, 8 years of Obama, and who knows 8 years of Trump(gulp - we'll see if he matures into 8 years). We are a country looking for an identity and I say it is in the middle of these 8 year swings.
PS this also shows up on Huskerboard and thus applies to Knapps thead on why conservatives aren't flocking to the political forum as much in resent days. Our son got 4th in the state in debate his Jr year. In watching him, he had to learn the 'facts' on both sides of the argument. While facts are stubborn things and John Adams used the facts of the situation correctly to win his court case a few years back, facts also come in sets of 2. Political discussion in DC or on HB should understand that we all have our set of facts, the trick is deciding which facts work the best for the situation. To do so, we have to be honest, unbiased and unfiltered and willing to learn from each other and try to understand the opposite perspective. That is how we grow. Enhance can grow from being more conservative to more liberal and I can grow the opposite way - that is OK. I respect his opinion. At different times we both my grow back the other direction and meet in the middle along the way. I think I've grown listening to some of my more left leaning friends on HB and I hope they have learned a thing from me.
