My path was winding. I was raised Pentecostal but when I was 15 I read the Bible cover-to-cover twice and some Ayn Rand. That cured me of being a Pentecostal, but I was still an agnostic theist and still believed a lot of superstitious shit. I didn't have any skepticism at all until I was around 20 and heard some teenagers totally spoofed the Duke University ESP experiments, which I had regarded as having statistically proven psychic abilities.
I probably always leaned centrist, but out of the USAF I first registered and voted Republican, largely on the basis of the Republicans not being likely to accomplish the things in their platform I didn't like. I was bad about voting regularly, but leaned Republican. In the eartly nineties I became a registered Libertarian, due largely to the influence of Ayn Rand and the Republicans becoming more able to enact things I didn't like. The last time I voted Republican for president was for Bob Dole when he ran against Bill Clinton. I identified as a classic liberal, fiscally responsible and socially liberal. I was becoming more and more skeptical in general and of government in particular and had jettisoned pretty much all superstition except a vague deism.
I finished college in my mid-thirties in the mid-nineties. Between science classes, logic classes, religion classes, and reading George Smith's 'The Case Against God' (in response to a religion professor's comments on the illogic of atheism), my lingering doubts of the universe requiring someone to get it started evaporated and I realized that at some point I had become an atheist. I remained a capital L Libertarian for a long time. I was till one when I joined this forum 10 years ago.
But I had issues with the LP, especially as it exists in SC. I was right in the political middle regarding left and right, but most SC Libertarians leaned hard right despite not thinking that their personal morality should be enforced by the police. I was becoming more skeptical of LP positions, partly because I noticed other Libertarians usually didn't show much skepticism. By 2014 I was voting Democrat for any office that didn't have a libertarian running for it. Leading up to the 2016 election there were far-fetched stories circulating about H. Clinton that prompted me to research them, and I realized that the vast majority of those stories were just hostile propaganda. I still voted for Gary Johnson for president, but voted Democrat down-ballot. I knew SC woudl carry Trump no matter who I voted for, so I might as well vote for the Libertarian candidate for president. I didn't think Donald Trump had a chance.
After Trump became president, I regretted my vote for Johnson even though it couldn't have made a difference in the outcome. Trump becoming president shook my trust in the collective wisdom of the people and I hadn't done my part to keep it from happening. I looked hard at my positions and what was going on around me. I was still a moderate centrist but I realized that currently the proper home for moderate centrists was the Democratic Party. The Republicans were off the rails and the Libertarians were too trusting that everything would go well if the government just stopped interfering. I haven't voted Republican or Libertarian since 2016.
So my arc towards being a moderate democrat started before my atheism, but if I had stayed a Pentecostal I don't see how I ever could have reached my current political position. And the moderation is more about not sacrificing better on the altar of best and being smart about achievable goals than not being for BLM, universal healthcare, a Scandinavian-style social safety net, prison reform, police reform, trans rights, etc. For example, I think loose talk about packing the court and adding states that will predictably vote for Democrats once we got enough power was a factor in keeping Democrats from making gains in the US House and more significant gains in the US Senate. I think 'reform the police' is a slogan that would have gotten a lot less resistance than 'defund or abolish the police'. But I'm now a solid democratic voter, so long as they continue to be the best available option with a chance of accomplishing their goals.
I probably always leaned centrist, but out of the USAF I first registered and voted Republican, largely on the basis of the Republicans not being likely to accomplish the things in their platform I didn't like. I was bad about voting regularly, but leaned Republican. In the eartly nineties I became a registered Libertarian, due largely to the influence of Ayn Rand and the Republicans becoming more able to enact things I didn't like. The last time I voted Republican for president was for Bob Dole when he ran against Bill Clinton. I identified as a classic liberal, fiscally responsible and socially liberal. I was becoming more and more skeptical in general and of government in particular and had jettisoned pretty much all superstition except a vague deism.
I finished college in my mid-thirties in the mid-nineties. Between science classes, logic classes, religion classes, and reading George Smith's 'The Case Against God' (in response to a religion professor's comments on the illogic of atheism), my lingering doubts of the universe requiring someone to get it started evaporated and I realized that at some point I had become an atheist. I remained a capital L Libertarian for a long time. I was till one when I joined this forum 10 years ago.
But I had issues with the LP, especially as it exists in SC. I was right in the political middle regarding left and right, but most SC Libertarians leaned hard right despite not thinking that their personal morality should be enforced by the police. I was becoming more skeptical of LP positions, partly because I noticed other Libertarians usually didn't show much skepticism. By 2014 I was voting Democrat for any office that didn't have a libertarian running for it. Leading up to the 2016 election there were far-fetched stories circulating about H. Clinton that prompted me to research them, and I realized that the vast majority of those stories were just hostile propaganda. I still voted for Gary Johnson for president, but voted Democrat down-ballot. I knew SC woudl carry Trump no matter who I voted for, so I might as well vote for the Libertarian candidate for president. I didn't think Donald Trump had a chance.
After Trump became president, I regretted my vote for Johnson even though it couldn't have made a difference in the outcome. Trump becoming president shook my trust in the collective wisdom of the people and I hadn't done my part to keep it from happening. I looked hard at my positions and what was going on around me. I was still a moderate centrist but I realized that currently the proper home for moderate centrists was the Democratic Party. The Republicans were off the rails and the Libertarians were too trusting that everything would go well if the government just stopped interfering. I haven't voted Republican or Libertarian since 2016.
So my arc towards being a moderate democrat started before my atheism, but if I had stayed a Pentecostal I don't see how I ever could have reached my current political position. And the moderation is more about not sacrificing better on the altar of best and being smart about achievable goals than not being for BLM, universal healthcare, a Scandinavian-style social safety net, prison reform, police reform, trans rights, etc. For example, I think loose talk about packing the court and adding states that will predictably vote for Democrats once we got enough power was a factor in keeping Democrats from making gains in the US House and more significant gains in the US Senate. I think 'reform the police' is a slogan that would have gotten a lot less resistance than 'defund or abolish the police'. But I'm now a solid democratic voter, so long as they continue to be the best available option with a chance of accomplishing their goals.
I'm not anti-Christian. I'm anti-stupid.
