Did you inherit your political thinking from your parents?

I think most of us start out with our parent(s)' opinions on pretty much everything. As we grow and start having our own experiences, we start branching off and forming our own. As far as political offiliation and general ideology, yeah, I'm still pretty close to how I was raised, but when it comes to specific issues, we don't see eye to eye. But does that mean that my opinions aren't my own? Nope. I may have started out thinking this way because I was taught it by my parents words and actions, but there comes a time in everyone's life when they have to decide for themselves. If a person's thoughts and convictions are carbon copies of their parents, and have no idea why they hold the convictions and opinions or where they came from, then yeah a case could be made that they inhereted them from their parents. However, the rest of us may have started with our parents' opinions, but it was up to us to decide to keep them or not.

Not a chance. I disagree with my parents political views and I am sure they would not approve of mine. In fact when I was growing up my political views were not even taken seriously because I was a girl so no one tried to brainwash me to vote the way they did. I suppose it also helped that we lived in an electorate where their candidate was safe so it did not matter who I voted for.

I am of no political view as 99.99% of all politicians in my country are complete humbugs and I don’t identify with any of their policies. My mom had her political views rather expressed while Dad is mum on this. Mom was (don’t know now) a staunch supported of the Communist Party of Bengal as this is the party which had done a lot for the rehabilitation of Bangladeshi refugees (which her family was) immediately after the partition of India. So naturally I grew up having strong positive views about this party which has now changed owing to my own analysis of situations and interpretation of various incidents. I am now, what can be called apolitical and I don’t vote.

I vote Democratic like my immediate family but all of us do hold different views on certain subjects. They are rather conservative on certain subjects and I am quite liberal. They feel that everyone deserves certain basic rights but certain groups should not have some rights. It's annoying. But I certainly do not vote a certain way because the rest of my family does.

I think if it's "inherited" it isn't really thinking, or it's not totally your own thoughts you're thinking anyway. I'm sure there are people who follow their parents' lead politically, at least in the beginning, and our upbringing and environment does a lot to shape our political views but that doesn't mean most of us don't make up out own minds as we mature. My parents were both Democrats and so am I but I'm much more socially liberal than they were. If anything, I influenced THEM in those kinds of issues. Annie

Definitely when I was still in my parents home was I influenced by their political views. Though once I had a mind of my own, also known as MOVING OUT, I realized that I didn't necessarily agree with their views. I'm not a devoted Republican or Democrat. If the person stands for what I do, or seemingly can make the changes necessary for our country, will I support them.

In a way, I suppose. We were a very poor family, and in my part of the world that led to more of a Democrat ideology. I was raised by a single mother and grandmother who were pretty a-political. Neither expressed much of an opinion until election time and they insisted they voted "for the man" instead of the party. My personal observance over the years has been that the Democratic party was more in tune with working class people. The Republicans always seem to be about fattening their own pockets at the expense of everyone else. George W. Bush, born into an oil family, is a pefect example. We suffered while he hasn't had to buy a tank of gas in over a decade.

When it comes to politics, my parents and I have our own opinion. Sometimes we have the same view about it sometimes we don't. We are not into politics so we just shrugged off our shoulders when we are not sharing the same idea. The idea and views I have about politics and politician right now are not 100% from my parents though they contributed to it in some aspect. The way I view politics is really depending on the knowledge I gain and how it affected me personally.

I think that to a large degree we do inherit our political thinking, but whether we build on that thinking or change it is up to the individual. And I emphasise individual, because most people do not escape their copnditioning. Obviously you did, and so did I. My family were very conservative, and up until a few years after I left school I voted conservative, as did my brother. We had both also attended an expensive private school which strongly reinforced the conservatiove message. But from that point on I began to shift away from the conservative line, to the moderate socialist line of Australia's Labour Party, but the older I get the more radical I have become, and I now would class as a radical Green. My brother, on the other hand, became ultra-conservative, a difficult thing for a gay man considering the approbation gays get from the Right. For those individuals with the ability to think for themselves childhood socialisation does not necessarily hold. Some of course choose to remain with what they learned from their parents, as a conscious decision, others move away. Lash

I feel that we are bound to get influenced at least to a certain extent by our parents leanings in Politics.Personally, i looked up to my father and his opinion meant a lot to me, as he would discuss about all issues impartially without trying to influence or force us to follow his choice of politics.Because he was so mature in his thinking and dealings, i naturally felt that his choice of political leanings would be right :)

I have inherited my political thinking from my father. My mom used to have a different political view, but my Dad always convinced her and vote for the party he likes.

some times i do agree with my parents ,but some times i dont .. always depends on the situation..

I became a democrate because of my father. But after I got out on my own I decided I really did like the decision I made. My father and I don't have the same views on everything but we do have the same basic beliefs. You'll be

if yeu receive some good thinking about politics from his father,your mother .you should develop it its a good day you

My family was Social Credit which is a Western Canadian version of the NDP that is a little left of the Democrats there in the States, but I was not that much into far left, and have been going rather right of center. I thought that my dad's favorite party was a bit too left for me. Our Democrats are the Liberals, but they are a bit more left than yours, and your Republicans are a bit more right then our Conservatives that are in the middle. So I guess I am stuck as well, if I were in the States I would vote Republican, but I vote for a Christian party, the Christian Heritage Party and since it is a minority party, it has little chance of getting in.

I was raised under British Politics folowing World War 2 and raised in a concervative household. When I went to live in the USA I really had no idea about the politics there. It was a former US congressman Paul Findley of Illinois who I became a registered Republican for he was great and worked hard for his constituants. Prior to an election I take a hard look at those running for office and vote for the person not the party they belong to. One of my favorite Democrats was an Illinois State Senator and I never failed to vote for him when I could - that was the late Vince Demuzio. So while I must say I am Republican on the books I vote for the person. No one in my family influenced me in my political thinking.

I am a libertarian, not to be confused with LIBERAL. My parents are both Republicans AND religious, so here we go with the two biggest causes of arguments among people - related or not - politics and religion. I am also somewhat apathetic as far as politics. Some things I am interested in, most I am not. I am not interested in being PC and I also don't care if someone doesn't agree with me. I don't ask people to agree, I only ask them to respect my opinion as mine and not to belittle it, argue with me too much, or put me down because of it. I think differing opinions in many fields help people to see where others are coming from, and as long as they can see merit in both and all, people can learn. My husband is relatively political, he knows I'm not and for the most part he doesn't get weird with me about it. I guess I'd say I took what I wanted and left what I didn't from my parents' thinking. I do the same with my husband, we were on two sides of the fence about a couple things. I think I am a lot more tolerant about things that are not mainstream than my parents.

I am in constant disagreement with my parents about certain political positions and well that's democracy is all about... I am not my parents thinking, probably one of the reasons why they can't impose anything though, heheh! My mother has been a vocal political influence but the more she opens her mouth, the more she lose grip of her stand which is typically the reverse of me. My mother does not listen, my father is a conformist, I am an activist. What a family!

No, I didn't. As the matter of fact, my parents did not have clear political views. And I think even if they had, I would not have inherited their views. I suppose we must look abound and develop our own views not only about politics but about many other things.

My family's past does not allow me to stand up for a republican system, therefore my system of political values is shaped around a monarchic system of government. Since - as in any other partriarchal family - I will inherit the title from my father, I think I was impregnated, through education, also with his own political thinking, not necesarilly when it comes to policies, but when it comes to the system itself.