They made me a champagne-drinking elitist, not a liberal!
If I was pushed leftward it was by real life economic / corporate scandals which made me think that rich people steal a LOT and call it free market or whatever, and also by religious right activity. I went from being only semi religious but not spiritual to being neither religious nor spiritual, so religious right activity became a major turnoff. Whatever they thought, I thought the opposite, basically. Now I know why I think what I do, but that's how it started.
And I have to observe again, DD, that you have some odd ideas about who is and who is not moderate.