How does one get started in forming a political opinion?

Your life experience shape your political opions.

 

just watch nancy grace. if you are enraged, then you are likely a liberal and if you are afraid you are probably conservative.

having an opinion is so easy that you can have your very own!

 

Go to college. You'll form an opinion in no time.

On a more serious note, I think your approach is wrong here. Everybody votes based on some sort of predisposed political opinion, and that's why most people end up making the wrong choice anyway. (For example -- I'm what most people would call conservative, but it amazes me how so many of my right-leaning friends staunchly oppose Obama without having a real reason other than "he's a liberal". FWIW, I disagree with some of Obama's positions, but I support him anyway because I believe he is the best option for this country right now.)

Your objective is to get *informed*. Not to become a conservative or a liberal -- to get informed. Know what the facts are, and learn to see the forest for the trees. Then you can make a smart choice, rather than a politically biased choice. What you want to become is an intelligent voter, not one of the herds of sheep daily driven to and fro by Hannity, Limbaugh, Gore, Colbert and other so-called pundits.

 

People form opinions through life experiences and also through what they learn from their peers and most importantly parents. Young kids usually get the political beliefs of their parents.

 

Good post and good advice JeopardE.

 

I wouldn't bother having political opinions. It's a waste of time and everybody is full of crap, so voting is a useless....