That's a very perceptive post, Janie. I congratulate you on recognizing your own mental conditioning, inherited from your upbringing. To do that is a key step on the road to enlightenment. When you can see your own cultural conditioning, and recognize your connection with other people...because they too have been similarly conditioned...then you begin to develop brotherhood and compassion for others even if they do disagree with you.

I have reached the point where I don't actually believe in any of the political parties anymore, I think they're all phony...but I'm still basically a natural liberal, and that's because I grew up in a basically liberal family. It does not fool me into thinking that I am inherently superior as a human being to those who are natural conservatives, as much as I may deplore their political judgement at times on certain issues... :-)