Older voters with interesting voting histories

[Arbitrage1980]

I love talking to older voters because they have some really interesting voting histories. Some examples:

-A lifelong Democrat who voted Nixon 1972 because McGovern was too crazy and Romney 2012 because Obama was too weak on Israel

-A self-described liberal indie who voted Goldwater 1964 because LBJ was a liar and then voted Dem in every election except Reagan 1984 (great economy, Mondale was too liberal) and HW Bush 1988 (because he was a good honest man)

What are some interesting voters you know of?

[Blow by blow, the passion dies]

I don't know any, but my grandmother voted for Orestes Quercia in 1994.

[xavier110]

My deceased mother had a strange voting history. She voted for whoever she liked more personally. No ideology really and subscribed to the “if voting mattered, it would be outlawed” philosophy, which I find fair, lol.

She was a teen during Kennedy. I don’t recall what her voting history looked like in the 70s, but she was Reagan/Reagan/Bush/Perot/Perot/Gore/Bush/Obama/Obama/???. In 2016, she told me she let the spirit of the founding fathers direct her in the voting booth, and I to this day have no idea what that meant.

[Holmes]

My deceased mother had a strange voting history. She voted for whoever she liked more personally. No ideology really and subscribed to the “if voting mattered, it would be outlawed” philosophy, which I find fair, lol.

She was a teen during Kennedy. I don’t recall what her voting history looked like in the 70s, but she was Reagan/Reagan/Bush/Perot/Perot/Gore/Bush/Obama/Obama/???. In 2016, she told me she let the spirit of the founding fathers direct her in the voting booth, and I to this day have no idea what that meant.

Well the founding fathers were racists who didn’t think women should even vote, so there you go.

[darklordoftech]

My grandfather was a Republican from when he started his business until 1996, when he retired and became afraid of the Gingrich Congress cutting entitlements. He then voted Democrat for the rest of his life (he died in 2010).

[MarkD]

Someone in this forum once asked "Describe a Dukakis '88 and Bush '92 voter," and I said "Me." Then they asked why, and my answer is kind of complicated:
As of 1988, my first time voting, my biggest issue of concern, at that time, was that I wanted the Supreme Court to get a little bit more liberal in order to overturn Bowers v. Hardwick. But that was before I started studying constitutional law in depth. During the G.H.W. Bush administration, I did start studying Con Law a whole lot, and through my studying, I realized I was wrong and that Bowers was correctly decided. By 1992, I decided that I wanted Originalists to be appointed to the Court, and Republicans were far more likely to do that. Plus, as of 1989, I also decided that, taking into account ALL of my political views -- all economic issues, all "social issues," and national security issues -- I was generally much closer to being a Republican.
(I'll be 59 y.o. in less than 2 months.)

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

I know Hunter S Thompson voted for Nixon in 68 because he had a special contempt for Hubert Humphrey and then McGovern in 72.