Did you inherit your political views.

[sonex]

I didn't. My father was a Tory through and through. He was a Capitalist in as much as he owned his own business. I believe he was pretty fair to his workers. At the end of the year, he paid a bonus to them relating to the profit the company had made during the year. The only one immediate sackable offence was if anyone removed the safety guards on the capstan lathes and other machinery.

Then in my early teens I read Charles Dickens, I read of the women and children working in the cotton and weaving mills, I read of the women and children working in the mines, and working for landowners. So I came to understand that Trade Unions were absolutely necessary.

[Freddy]

My Old Man is your typical swinging voter, as an Economist, however, he has no time for Abbott and the tea-party fruit-cakes that have infested the Tories.
My Mother was a life-long Labor voter, she considered that we should always look out for those who have not. There but for the grace of G-d and all that.
Her Mother, my Grand-Mother, was a very proud Member of the Viennese Communist Party, before the holocaust.

[Earl Grey]

Yes I did.

Funny, as children are supposed to rebel against their parents' views. ;D

A "fair go" is the basis of our family's political views.

[williamd]

Son you dad had a lot of good common sense

I certainly didn't inherit my political leanings because all my family are loyal Labor which despite this obvious shortcoming I still love them.

[pim]

My Dad actually worked as a paid official for the old Country Party. He was an organiser in the seat of Lyne back in the 1950s and 1960s. Back in those days the seat was the buckle on the Country Party belt. The State member was a Leon Punch and the Federal member was a clergyman, the Rev. Phillip Lucock. He wrote me a character reference when I finished high school. My Dad was viscerally anti-Labor and the break with that background came for me during my uni days in the late 1960s as opposition to conscription and the Vietnam War grew and spread. It wasn't just that, though. My Dad was also a very dogmatic and right wing Catholic. He wasn't into compromises, you either accepted all of the Church's teachings on contraception, divorce, abortion, abstaining from meat on Friday, the rosary ... in short the whole conservative Catholic cosmic view - without question or challenge, or you weren't a Catholic. I think it was in 1968 with the Papal encyclical Humanae Vitae which was about the Pill and which came down against all forms of contraception, especially oral contraception, and which declared Roman Roulette, or the so-called "rhythm method" (basically taking a guess at the exact date of ovulation) as the only God-ordained method of family planning, that tipped the scales for me and I became a "lapsed" Catholic. That, plus my growing inclination towards Labor as the then Liberal government increasingly vilified and demonised people who did no more than question conscription and the Vietnam War, meant that I diverged very rapidly from the politics of my parents.

And yet funnily enough I think I owe the old guy a lot, as far as my politics are concerned. Conservative my old man might have been, but at the same time he had a keen interest and involvement in current affairs. I grew up in rural NSW which in the early 1960s was still pre-television, so the news was either listened to on the radio or read about in the newspaper. And the radio news meant the ABC. When a news bulletin was about to go on air it would be preceded by the old ABC news theme music and that was a signal for us to be quiet because "the news" was somehow "important". The newsreader was a guy called Peter Dore-Smith who sounded very English (he probably was!). The thing is that through the ABC I was presented with a model of English as a language that was to be spoken well, clearly and with good diction. I think I have my parents to thank for facilitating that. My Dad's involvement with conservative politics meant that we regularly had various Country Party identities to dinner. Rednecks they may have been (I didn't know what a redneck was back then) but as guests in our house they were always gracious and courteous to my mother and made a fuss of us kids. As a kid I loved listening to adult conversation, even if I couldn't understand what they were talking about. I marvelled at the range of things that adults could talk about. They always had so much to say and they knew so many words! Inevitably at the dinner table the talk would turn to politics and I would be fascinated at the to and fro of the table talk. I'd just listen. My point here is that even though my politics ended up diverging sharply from my parents' politics, I trace my interest in current affairs, and the fact that I'm a news junkie, to them.

So did I inherit my political views? In a way I think I did - more than I would have been prepared to admit about 20 years ago! There's a sense in which we all end up turning into our parents!

[zombie]

Short answer nope....long answer father and mother were both Labor voters.
Father a International Toastmaster champion was a excellent speaker and orator, a top level Freemason at Parramatta lodge and was asked to be a Alderman for Burwood council Sydney for a start in a Labor political career, he declined pursuing a noted career in structural engineering....still he had no bearing on my opinions politically as he was Labor right and I Labor left...poles apart.

[Dragonfly]

Yes and no. My dad was a lefty but also a capitalist. He cared about poor people (I do too), he cared about people being treated equal (I do too), he cared about freedoms (I do too), he didn't like politicians that gave breaks to the rich (I despise giving to the rich and so does GOD), he didn't like politicians that gave hand outs to the lazy (I loathe those who think the government owes them a living and so does GOD).

So here’s my dilemma who can you vote for? Left are give to the lazy, right are give to the rich at least in Dad’s day he had decent folks to vote for now we get crap to pick from on both sides especially the left!

[Freddy]

[quote author=dragonfly board=general thread=13 post=149 time=1348789098 he didn't like politicians that gave hand outs to the lazy (I loathe those who think the government owes them a living and so does GOD).
[/quote]

Lazy, or Vulnerable ?

You cannot assume that because someone is out of work and receiving Welfare that that makes them automatically "lazy"

[Dragonfly]

You should not assume I think everyone who is out of work is lazy. But I most certainly consider people who are able to play (sports, swim, do strenuous exercise, and so on) for pleasure but they refuse to work because it hurts their back, or makes them tired or reading hurts their eyes but they can play on-line all day but o no they can’t work because that’s too hard. People who don’t take responsibility for themselves and then teach their kids to be government reliant are a curse on working people and lefty governments are the main transgressors who enable this unacceptable behavior.

I see nothing wrong with helping people get on their feet when something goes amiss but life- long tending to is ridiculous( unless they are disabled) and as long as people can be handed a living they will never be responsible.

[Freddy]

Sept 28, 2012 15:08:48 GMT 11 Dragonfly said:

You should not assume I think everyone who is out of work is lazy. But I most certainly consider people who are able to play (sports, swim, do strenuous exercise, and so on) for pleasure but they refuse to work because it hurts their back, or makes them tired or reading hurts their eyes but they can play on-line all day but o no they can’t work because that’s too hard. People who don’t take responsibility for themselves and then teach their kids to be government reliant are a curse on working people and lefty governments are the main transgressors who enable this unacceptable behavior.

That's the problem though, just because they are active, may not necessarily capable of work. I saw a Doco a couple of weeks ago. It was about the people who were working in the South Tower of the WTC, on the same levels where the plane made impact. Remarkably some survived and their story made compelling viewing. To cut to the point, these people were active, and outwardly looked like there was nothing wrong with them, no doubt they could work, at least that is how it would appear. But really, can you blame any of them if perhaps they haven't had the best employment record since ?

[slartibartfast]

My mum was very involved in politics and nearly ran for the Senate, my grand-dad was a local councellor so I guess an interest in politics was in the blood. I was asked to consider running for a seat, but could not be stuffed with all the infighting.

[Dragonfly]

Freddy,
Sure people who experience trauma like 911 will need time to heal just as people who lose a loved one, have a car wreck, or even go to war. They need time to deal with whatever their situation is then find acceptance of what has happened to them instead of giving up on life completely (living off the government for the rest of their lives) they need to find a way to carry on. Were you taught to give up when things go terribly wrong?