I was thinking this last week about my own political ‘evolution’ in my life and wondering if people have had similar political adventures such as I have had.

When a young child I was a bit of an idealist politically (I believed that people were generally good and the government only wanted what was best for all it’s citizens). I found this a pretty useful definition for idealism:

Idealism is a thought process of how the material world adheres to ideas. Idealists follow a certain ideal concept and understand everything from its adherence to that concept.

Well you can imagine how traumatic for a young five year to deal with Richard Nixon (1974) and the Watergate scandal. Still I was primarily this young idealist up until I was 18 years old. I realize now this idealism came largely from my mom and stepfather who still waxed nostalgic about President Kennedy and the lost age of Camelot. I guess in a way they were idealist still despite the long defeat in Vietnam under Johnson and then Nixon and that influenced me. So I might even take another step to add that I was a liberal idealist with my own view of life and human nature shaped by that era that obviously had affected my parents so much.

The first blow to this idealism came when I was 17 years old. I saw my stepfather with a woman that wasn’t my mother. I guess he had embraced some of that Kennedy idealism that I was unfamiliar with. Personal ethics and politics were very important to me and this lack of personal ethics in my stepfather had a profound influence on me. If his way included this, it suddenly seemed quite shallow to me (of course being 17, my own world view was as big as the Pacific ocean but as deep as a mud puddle but I digress).

I began to explore alternate visions of the world as I was, to be fair, not as optimistic as I had been. I began a descent into what I think was Pragmatism.

1. Philosophy. A movement consisting of varying but associated theories, originally developed by Charles S. Peirce and William James and distinguished by the doctrine that the meaning of an idea or a proposition lies in its observable practical consequences.
2. A practical, matter-of-fact way of approaching or assessing situations or of solving problems.

As a result for the next 10 to 12 years I drifted a bit. I registered Republican but also was attracted to some Democrats (traditionally more moderate ones). Unfortunately for me Pragmatism tended to be an excuse for not really believing in anything (at least politically), as a true pragmatist can astride the fence between conservatism and liberalism quite easily, and pick and choose from both what it likes. Sounds ideal in some ways, but in reality I felt a constant inner struggle with a trend towards more conservative thinking and the shattered idealism of my youth. A good example of my pragmatism was my admiration for Jesse Jackson and his failed attempt to get the Democratic nomination. I was thrilled by his rousing speeches but concerned about his official policy (specifically taking more of my money for social programs which didn’t seem to work very well). I was torn between my heart and my head and was suffering from political vertigo.

In my early 30’s my pessimism deepened when I saw repeated examples of failed idealism, failed liberalism, failed conservatism, and failed pragmatism. I also realized that typically if the government has to take over something it can only go one way….get worse!

I figured at this point I had two choices:

1. Anarchist – “the view that society can and should be organized without a coercive state.”
2. Libertarian – “political philosophy which prioritizes individual liberty and minimize the role of the state.”

What would I choose? And how about you? What would you do or have done in your own political evolution?