Woes of a College (Registered) Republican

This past November was my first election.

I, like so many other students this past year, went to the polls to do my civic duty: help select a new crop of leaders for the United States. However, despite the importance of local and state politicians, the choice that received the most media hype was whether Barack Obama or John McCain would emerge as our country's next president.

Now, I like to consider myself a well-informed, issue-educated student of politics, but arriving on a college campus for the first time only three months before the election gave me reason to believe that the vast majority of my peers did not share my view on the issues America is facing. Leaving my personal beliefs aside, I was surprised by the way my leftward-leaning amigos viewed their conservative counterparts. All around, there were signs, bumper stickers, and politically-active co-eds calling for change in Washington. Change, that is, from the nasty Republican Old Guard that hates poor people, women, and minorities and loves war, torture, and killing puppies.

It didn't take me long to realize that showing of the key chain purchased for me as a gift at the Republican National Committee headquarters was a very bad idea. Coming from a conservative household, the sudden thrust into liberal academia came as a sudden, yet expected, surprise. I knew that it wasn't popular to share a party affiliation with grandmothers, yokel farmers, and Bible bangers, but I would never have expected the animosity to be so prevalent.

My first real education in the political preferences of college students came at a voter registration rally the night of the first presidential debate. In an effort to attract students to register to vote as part of a campus initiative, a friend and I donned suits and Halloween masks to get people excited; his was an Obama mask, mine was McCain. People loved us. We posed for pictures (one of which landed on the cover of the university newspaper the following morning), talked with people who were registering, and danced to the music provided by the free concert hosted that night. We were a hit. But unfortunately, my friend Mr. Obama was pulled away for the night, leaving me and my girlfriend to brave the rest of the evening ourselves.

Bad idea. What had been a fun little show of political opposition with cooperation became a one man tribute to the senator from Arizona. Needless to say, I, by myself, was not a hit. I was surprised by the overwhelmingly poor reception that I as McCain received, but didn't fully begin to understand why for a few more days. It was while watching CNN that I realized why so many people view Republicans and ignorant fools: lots of Republicans are ignorant fools. This revelation was brought about watching a press conference in which Senator McCain fielded so many inappropriate questions about his opponent that he was practically forced to defend the man for fear of defamation by association.

What began as questions concerning domestic policy evolved--or, more appropriately, devolved--into accusations that Obama is secretly Muslim, among a list of other qualities. It was in this moment that I realized why I was so vilified for supporting a man like McCain. People saw those images of ignorance and jumped to the conclusion that all McCain supporters were like this, and jumped further to the belief that McCain himself felt the same way. Weeks later, when a Will Ferrell reprised his role as George W. Bush and, in the way that only W. can, that a vote for John McCain is a vote for George Bush, I believe far too many people took it seriously (I do, however, believe Tina Fey's Sarah Palin was spot on).

The reason I write this to urge people that not all Republicans are crazies intent on making America into an aristocracy and nuking the rest of the world into oblivion. There do exist conservatives like myself who believe that moderation is more important than pissing off "The Liberal." But what is more important is to realize that life political ideologies cannot be divided into two cut-and-dry camps. There are over three hundred million people in this country, meaning that our political system is influenced either directly or indirectly by over three hundred million different views of how things should be done. And even if a voter decides to register with a party, that does not dictate the way that person will vote. In some states, people are forced to register with a party if they desire to vote in primary elections (as is the case in my home state of Arizona and the reason why I decided against registering independent).

So as President Obama takes office with his promises of change, let us make a change ourselves to stop judging people on their party affiliation because, in the end, it my determine if your ballot is red or blue, but it won't determine the choices you make.

http://inessential.com/images/run_liberal_run.jpg