I grew up in a Republican house. I grew up thinking I was a Republican, and that Republicans are better. I grew up thinking “Liberal” was an insult.
It wasn’t even their platform. It was just that name. The idea of having a smaller government. That seemed like it was right.
I was damn near registering Republican when I registered to vote.
My beliefs on the hot-button issues such as war/defense, religion, abortion, etc. all sounded in my head to be Conservative ideas—e.g. I thought going to war was bad. And if we don’t have as much money going to war, we’d have less taxes, and the Republican platform was about having less taxes and smaller government, therefore I thought it was standard for Republicans to not want war. That’s how it reasons in my head. That’s why I thought I was Republican.
But over the years I realized that these stances were actually tied more to the Democrat party. I realized that the Republican party conflicted greatly with everything I stood for, and that it was directly tied with religion Christianity. And a lot of the stances the Republican party held contradicted other stances (e.g. being anti-abortion, they argue “Every life is sacred.” but strangely they are generally pro-war, and pro-gun, and I sure as hell have never met a Republican vegetarian). I realized I couldn’t ever be Republican.
I started calling myself Libertarian for a while. That reflected my beliefs a bit better. But then that got soiled by the Tea Party movement.
I will not yet call myself a Democrat. But I apparently am a Liberal.
So to answer the question asked in your title, “I have. Kind of.”