Meerkat Prompts: How have your political views changed over time?
How have your political views changed over time?
You know, when I pause to reflect upon my political leanings, I don’t think they’ve changed a great deal, if at all, from when I was a young man. My inclination has always been to favour the historically left-wing political parties of the UK, and I recall having a preference for Labour as far back as 1992, when they somehow botched a significant advantage in the election polls to lose to John Major’s Tories. Whenever I’ve followed US politics, I’ve found myself gravitating toward the Democrats, even if they are really more of a centrist party at best, rather than a true left-wing option.
The passage of time has hardened my positions. I probably have to issue a disclaimer/reminder here (I do not, and have never, advocated for full-scale communism, or anything like that – please see this post and this post for some clarity of my positions), but the continued excesses of unchecked corporate greed, and its ugly marriage to political parties (one need only look to how Elon Musk currently pulls Donald Trump’s strings) are damaging our world, in so many ways. From fleecing people in dire need of medical care, to flooding rivers and lakes with sewage, to gross inequality of wages, the hard-right capitalist model is failing billions of people the world over. Popular phrases like ‘trickle-down economics’ have proven to be empty, hollow words.
Might my views change in the future? Well, it’s certainly possible. With new information and new circumstances, new opinions can also form. It will depend on what plays out, and how it plays out. For the time being, I am a left-wing meerkat, and I have seen nothing from the political or social right that’s had me reconsider where I stand.