How Long Can You Rely On Your Upbringing?

[OneTimeSBX]

i think so. it shows a tremendous amount of determination and willpower, and helps you see eye to eye with the public.

as a middle class black female i have always found it hard to believe an upper class white male could really see what my concerns are lol! not that some of them dont know what it is like to live middle class, or be a single parent, but i just feel that the people affecting my laws, should be like me. and if the only thing we have in common is upbringing, well that is a step in the right direction.

[UGAalum94]

I think you can work your background as long as your current behavior is in keeping with the values you were supposed to have learned/ experience you are assumed to have had.

Once there's a serious breakdown between your current behavior and your past, you shouldn't be able to just trot out your roots as a way of mitigating your present policies. Think Cheney. Do you care that his background wasn't wealthy?

[epchick]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

I think you can work your background as long as your current behavior is in keeping with the values you were supposed to have learned/ experience you are assumed to have had.

Once there's a serious breakdown between your current behavior and your past, you shouldn't be able to just trot out your roots as a way of mitigating your present policies. Think Cheney. Do you care that his background wasn't wealthy?

I agree with this. I wouldn't like a candidate who "trumpets" his lower-middle class background, yet his life up to that point was about shunning that life.

[BetteDavisEyes]

I believe that your upbringing can and does strongly impact who you become later in life. My upbringing certainly shaped who I am and it makes me grateful for everything I have today.

I agree with UGAalum that as long as your current behavior is in line with how you were raised, there is nothing wrong with using that to relate to everyone else. Now, if someone born in wealth & raised in wealth kept trying to identify with me, I'd roll my eyes and walk away b/c they don't have the background knowledge & experience to attempt to identify with someone who was raised in poverty.