You, family and friends politics.

[angus]

I was raised by mainstream 70s Democrats.  Anti-capital punishment, anti-power projectionism, pro-socialized medicine, sympathetic to unions, etc.  And I think that describes most of my extended family as well.  Several of my uncles have served in elected office and they're all Democrats in the center of where the party was in the 70s and 80s, decidedly to the left of the center of the part in the 90s.  Don't think they changed with the times and have all been ousted from office.

I think most of my friends in high school and college were Republicans.  I remember it would come up in conversation from time to time, and I was always in a minority.  I guess I gravitated toward Republicans.  You have to remember I went to college in the 80s, heyday of Republican popularity, and everyone was Republican except me and my family.  Nowadays, there are more Democrats.  In fact, by the time I was in grad school more friends were Democrats than Republicans.

I became unaffiliated from the Democrat party about 15 years ago, and became a Republican about 8 years ago.  I suppose most of my friends/colleagues these days are Democrats, so I'm still in a minority.  I guess I'm always swimming against the stream.