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My parents were politically split, as were both sets of their parents. In each case, the wife was liberal and the husband conservative--though fairly moderately so in all cases. The joke was that their votes cancelled each other out. In fact, story goes that one election year my grandmother was too sick to go out to the polling place, so granddad chivalrously abstained.
I remember being in sixth grade in 1984 and supporting Reagan. Mondale seemed like a creepy old jerk, and Reagan seemed nice, and Dad liked Reagan. That was the last time I was ever on Dad's side.
When I reached the age sufficient to really reason my way through political questions, it just seemed obvious to me that a government serves a society, and that a society is only as strong as its weakest members. Given that, it only seems right that one key goal of a government should be to empower and strengthen the citizens who need it. Whether that means taxing the rich and giving to the poor, or socialized medicine (I'm for it, no matter how scary the S-word is to some people), or whatever else, what I'm about is people being taken care of, and I want government to do the same.
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