politics

When someone mentioned the word 'politician', I always pictured people who worked in washington D.C. who always wore red white and blue dress suits, and red white and blue tophats. I always believed that politicians carried a little american flag with them too.

God Bless America

I am 52 now (2007) so I grew up in the cold war. For many years, I believed that the nuclear holocaust was at hand, so much so that I would hear thunder and think it was a nuclear attack. I suppose the constant news on the subject was a contributor. I finally outgrew it.

John Price

I thought you could vote as many times as you want, not just once.

Lord Zedd

My best friend was called Tory, short for Victoria (although I never figured out her real name until after I moved away). When my mum told me about the 'Tory party' I first thought that it was her birthday party that I wasn't invited to. When she explained what the 'Tory party' really was I thought that my friend was really secretly their leader. Thankfully, I figured out that I was wrong before I told anyone.

Logica

I am from Ireland but grew up in london in the 1980's. At that time Northern Ireland was in the news a lot as was Sinn Fein. Until i was 8 i thought Sinn Fein was a woman and i couldn't work out why she never came on tv herself.

Rosa

I thought Santa was the President of the North Pole. It was stupid I know
lol

Lynn Wright

On every Election Day, every state has 'electoral votes', I thought they said "electoral volts" which means something to do with electrical and whoever president has electrocuted by by a higher voltage win the election.

Anon

i used to think that 'uncle sam' was a real person...who took all my parent's money!

julie

i used to think that Nassar Hussein(the captain of the England cricket team) and Saddam Hussein were the same person.

Anon

I was bourn on 23 April 79 just days before Margaret Thatcher became prim minister and so until around 8 years old I thought you had to be a woman to be Prime minister.

Lawrence

I live in Kansas, and I have all my life. I always was a fairly logical kid (although my behavior apeared to contradict this!) and I always tried to make sense of complex things. When I was a little kid, I heard people talking about the Governer. Well, one time we went to the capital of the state, Topeka, Kansas. And we saw the Capitol building and iI remember Mom pointing out its ts big, green copper dome, etc. I remember Mom saying thats where the governer was. I thought that the governer headed the government and the president headed the country. I thought they were separate organizations that ruled the country. I always thought it was neat that they had the government based in Topeka. I always asked people things like, "Hey, why did they put the govermmnt in Kansas?" I always wondered why they would choose such a half-a**, redneck place like Kansas to put such an important thing. I was kind of stupid but smarter than other kids my age. at least I knew who the governor was.

Nick

That the leader of each country was the smartest person in that country and that they were also the richest people in the country. Except for in America where i thought astronauts were richer and England where i thought the Queen was richer.

Tim Fawcett

When election time came, I used to think that whoever was up for nominations, (about ten or twelve in number) came in first, got the presidency, and the one who came in second, was vice president.

Anon

I grew up in West-Berlin, when is still was in the middle of Communist territory. Passing the border by car to transit through East-Germany (for a holiday, typically) took hours and the controls were harsh, with dogs and seaches and lots of paperwork and lots of questions.
I thought the reason was fighting highway robbery and always felt uneasy when we were visiting countries like Denmark of Switzerland where you wouldn't be harrassed for hours when entering. I thought they were irresponsible and dangerous places!

Anon

When I was young, president Bush was president. For some reason, I thought Abraham Lincoln was the president that came right before bush, instead of Clinton. I recall bragging that I was alive when Abraham Lincoln was around. No one believed be, though.

Anon

I was born in 1971. I don't remember Nixon resigning. I do remember Carter being elected president. All my memories of Gerald Ford, however, have somehow morphed into Chevy Chase falling off the podium on 'Saturday Night Live.'

queeneve

When I was young, I saw on TV that the US President was named Reagan, which is very similar to the German word "Regen" (meaning "rain") so I thought the Americans say "Reagan" for rain.

Stefan, Germany

I used to hear on TV all the time about the "government", and think it was an actual person who was even more important and powerful than the president, except nobody actually saw him or knew his name.

Brandon Campbell

When I was young, I was driving in the car with my father, and they were talking about politics on the radio. The words "Democrat" and "Republicans" kept coming up, and I asked my dad what the difference was. His response was, "Well, last year they elected a Democrat. In a few years they'll get sick of him and elect a Republican. Then the same thing will happen and they'll elect a Democrat again." This was my understanding of the U.S. political system until around my senior year in high school, when I discovered that it was a bit more complex than that. As my knowledge of politics grew, however, I came to realize that my dad had pretty much summed things up pretty accurately.

Anon

I used to believe that the state seal (you know, the picture on the state flag) was an actual animal seal! I believed that every state had an animal seal at the state capitol! I believed this until I was in 7th grade.

Lauren Carroll