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I grew up in a politically intert house. My paternal grandparents were faithful voters but they were the only members of my family who did so, so far as I know. And this was true even before we became Jehovah's Witnesses, who prohibit participation in the political process.
I've always been simultaneously fascinated and repulsed by politics. It is probably the most important realm of human behavior since it is the process by which we decide how we'll live together. I also adore debate and discussion and argument. And this is what repulses me. I find that 99% of people hold political views simply because someone else told them to and have made no attempt to understand why those views are valid or how they are supportable (and thus, for most, a political view is essentially received wisdom and otherwise indistinguishable from how most people come into their religious views).
I do not think there is a "right" political point of view, and enjoy honest disagreement. I came to my views through an awful lot of thought. Not about politics but about the universe and metaphysics and biology and not an insignificant amount of personal preference (though I try to constantly explore the whys and origins of my personal preferences). By nature I'm just a libertarian sort of person. As much as possible I want to be left alone and want to leave everybody else alone. This is tempered by the recognition that modern society is too large and too complicated for pure libertarianism and there are reasonable points of compromise.
What I hate about the effect of democracy on politics is that with everybody invested in it, it becomes personal. And most people think that when a person disagrees with them, it is either because that other person is stupid or immoral or because that other person is thinking such of you. Thus political debate becomes the lashing out of hurt feelings. Very few people can accept that honest disagreement is possible. That two reasonable people can, given identical inputs, come to different rational outputs. With such people, discussion is futile and repetitive.
I engage in political (or other) debate not to change anybody's mind (though it is good if everybody is open to such a possibility) but to simply prod, poke, and explore the whys and implications of various ideas.
I do it anyway, though. I have no idea where it came from, though. Nobody in my family cares and none of my friends in college did either. Probably the biggest influence was probably reading Robert Heinlein's brand of libertarianism and Isaac Asimov's skepticism (politically very different people) when I was kid.
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