What is your earliest memory of politics?

[LordMortis]

For a kid my age (born in 1971) the end of Carter's term in particular was quite bad. I don't remember how much I was impacted by malaise and the energy crisis, but I sure remember the Iranian hostage situation. That was enough for an eight-year old to form a not completely irrational (if somewhat naive) dislike of Carter.

Plus, he didn't answer my question about the tattoos.

(1970) I remember the strong positive sentiment when the hostage were freed right after he was elected but then whispers of Iran Contra and a golden triangle came very shortly thereafter. I remember the Iranian flags burning. I don't actually know how old I was when Sandanista became a word. That was probably my first real introduction to politics, trying to understand if revolutionaries where good guys or bad guys and what made them so, and where making the world safe for democracy might just not be as noble as they make it to a kid who is still a bit away from puberty.

[Holman]

For a kid my age (born in 1971) the end of Carter's term in particular was quite bad. I don't remember how much I was impacted by malaise and the energy crisis, but I sure remember the Iranian hostage situation. That was enough for an eight-year old to form a not completely irrational (if somewhat naive) dislike of Carter.

Plus, he didn't answer my question about the tattoos.

(1970) I remember the strong positive sentiment when the hostage were freed right after he was elected but then whispers of Iran Contra and a golden triangle came very shortly thereafter. I remember the Iranian flags burning. I don't actually know how old I was when Sandanista became a word. That was probably my first real introduction to politics, trying to understand if revolutionaries where good guys or bad guys and what made them so, and where making the world safe for democracy might just not be as noble as they make it to a kid who is still a bit away from puberty.

You just had to remember that the insurgent death squads in El Salvador were the Bad Guys while the insurgent death squads in Nicaragua were the Good Guys.

[Holman]

Eisenhower was the last good republican president.

I like Ike. I can very dimly remember him being prez when I was a toddler. He was on the same plane as Jesus and Santa.

I think I've mentioned this before, but I taught an Eisenhower (Ike's grand-niece) when she was in high school.

She told me that the whole family are Democrats now.

[coopasonic]

Apparently politics didn't enter my families home much. I think in 10th or 11th grade for History class we were required to subscribe to Time magazine when Iran Contra was a thing. I remember Oliver North and "I have no recollection".

[AWS260]

Reflecting on this, I realized that 10th grade was my political awakening. I recall being vaguely aware before then that my parents didn't like Reagan, but I have three very clear political memories from 10th grade:

• Harold Washington's death. I was sad because he seemed like a nice guy, and I knew it was important that he was the first Black mayor of Chicago.

• Boycotting Shell gasoline because of the company's involvement in South Africa's apartheid regime. I remember one of my parents explaining why we were driving past our usual Shell station to go further for gas.

• The U.S. airstrike on Libya. My friends and I talked about this a lot, because like a lot of boys we thought military stuff was really cool. For my friend Craig's birthday, I went to the local t-shirt shop and got him a custom t-shirt that said "Kaddafi Busters". We were also super into Ghostbusters.

[Lassr]

I have a vague memory of the Ford assassination attempt in 1975, I would have been 9, but the earliest vivid memories would have been Jimmy Carter Days, gas shortage, Iran Hostages. That's when I really became interested and paid attention, I became eligible to vote while Reagan was in office.

[Blackhawk]

FWIW, my 'awakening' came long, long after my earliest memories. I never understood politics. I still don't. It's all about people who step into a system of rules in order to ignore those rules, who get there by making a bunch of statements that everybody knows are nonsense but treat as if they're relevant. It's the most important roles being chosen by a popularity contest with no attention to capability. It's people who will burn down the house rather than allow the wrong people to straighten the picture on the wall. For a literal, direct thinker, it's complete absurdity.

I'd say my awakening was probably Bush Jr. I didn't care who won in 2000. I was fine with Bush. Then I watched what he did, and along the way I noticed what he stood for. Somewhere in there I realized that no matter how absurd the process was, the impact made it important to at least be aware of what is going on. Also happening at the same time: I started visiting Gone Gold and I had kids. Both were also awakenings.

[hentzau]

Earliest memory is the 1972 Nixon/McGovern election. Our school had a mock election, and I voted for McGovern because the cutest girl in our class told me I should.

[Holman]

My memory of the end of the Reagan era doesn't seem to fit with the general narrative.

By 1987-88, Reagan's aura of sunny confidence had withered. Iran-Contra shook the administration, but there was also a general sense that he was suffering from senility and that his top advisors were really running the White House. His performance at Congressional hearings suggested that he didn't know what his administration was doing. There was even a long scandal revealing that Nancy and Ronald had depended on a Los Angeles astrologer for major personal decisions and perhaps even political ones.

I had been conservative in 9th/10th grade but had become much more liberal towards graduation (1987), but even my best friend (a staunch conservative who went to VMI and became a Navy officer) rejected Reagan over the Constitutional issues involved in the Iran-Contra scheme.

However, when I look at (e.g.) the Gallup approval numbers, Reagan seems to have suffered a dip in 87 but then recovered to like 60% in 1988, his last year in office. Apparently he had high approvals all through the period I'm describing above.

I guess that's what Teflon means. Does anyone else remember late Reagan as I do?

[Jaymann]

My memory of the end of the Reagan era doesn't seem to fit with the general narrative.

By 1987-88, Reagan's aura of sunny confidence had withered. Iran-Contra shook the administration, but there was also a general sense that he was suffering from senility and that his top advisors were really running the White House. His performance at Congressional hearings suggested that he didn't know what his administration was doing. There was even a long scandal revealing that Nancy and Ronald had depended on a Los Angeles astrologer for major personal decisions and perhaps even political ones.

I had been conservative in 9th/10th grade but had become much more liberal towards graduation (1987), but even my best friend (a staunch conservative who went to VMI and became a Navy officer) rejected Reagan over the Constitutional issues involved in the Iran-Contra scheme.

However, when I look at (e.g.) the Gallup approval numbers, Reagan seems to have suffered a dip in 87 but then recovered to like 60% in 1988, his last year in office. Apparently he had high approvals all through the period I'm describing above.

I guess that's what Teflon means. Does anyone else remember late Reagan as I do?

Well it's not fair, but I despised that fucker since he was governor of California, and I relished Iran-Contra. I guess I should be thankful CA flipped from the conservative turd bucket it was back then.

[dbt1949]

At that time any body was preferable to Carter.
"Testing testing...we're dropping the bomb on Russia testing testing testing."

[Kraken]

However, when I look at (e.g.) the Gallup approval numbers, Reagan seems to have suffered a dip in 87 but then recovered to like 60% in 1988, his last year in office. Apparently he had high approvals all through the period I'm describing above.

I guess that's what Teflon means. Does anyone else remember late Reagan as I do?

I hated Reagan from the start and knew that he was senile for his last 2-3 years. Iran-Contra didn't drag down his approval because he was an affable old man. The way I remember it, people didn't hold him responsible because (a) it was more complicated than most voters cared to understand, and (b) Reagan himself probably wasn't up on the details.

My takeaway from Hinkley's assassination attempt was "If you go hunting presidents, don't use a .22."

[dbt1949]

And we all hated Commies.