Communication in my family consists of fights over the last plain bagel, an eternal war for computer access, and political ramblings. Luckily I'm not a fan of bagels and I happen to own my own computer. So really, my only true contributions to social interaction in my household are of the political persuasion, which is a good thing as our collective feelings towards modern politics are surprisingly homogeneous. Even my twelve year old sister who is mostly concerned with her hair and coordinating her toenail polish with her handbag would call herself conservative and be able to defend her position. In fact, I think my dog may be a registered republican.
The thing is, when I was twelve I don't remember my parents ever discussing politics, it was just something I was interested in. I recall campaigning for George Senior (the 3rd greatest Republican President) while in first grade. I haven't the slightest idea why I cared so much about the mock election, though the feeling of elation I experienced when I found our student body had chosen good old George is something I'll never forget.
Political activism must be in my blood because at the ripe old age of eleven I got to attend the Democratic National Convention in Chicago with a group of my peers. We made a presentation on education reform and if I remember it correctly it was kick ass, though slightly too conservative for the likes of the democratic delegates. I even got to be on the news! I can't really identify why I decided to be a republican at such an uncharacteristic young age but I can promise you that it was not because of my parents. Sadly, they were hardcore democrats. Most who know me well enough would explain my political identity by calling me cold hearted and money hoarding. I'm fine with that. Now that the parents have grown old and become jaded, bitter, money hoarding, and cold hearted they see it my way. I take personal responsibility for the glorious transformation.
I had my fears about going to a really big, public, and openly liberal university. I at times feared for my life, walking through anti-Bush protests sporting the latest campaign gear isn't the best way to make friends but it is a good way to spark poignant debate. Sadly, I found that the liberal cohorts didn't really have real reasons to hate the President so much. In fact they knew little about his policy and only embraced John Kerry for many of his outrageous promises which I fear will turn out to be quite empty. Apparently Senator Kerry plans to provide a four year education to every young American who devotes two years to glorified community service. I'm not saying that encouraging young Americans to give back to their community is a bad thing, but the enormous tax increases required to fund the education of every youth would be quite burdensome. If only Kerry would look beyond his potential eight years in office and realize the impact of his promises. Well, I don't care if he realizes it, but I pray that voters do.
Since a lot of my fellow students have a big problem with the war I think that they should really pay closer attention to Kerry's proposed plan of action which would actually increase U.S. presence in Iraq for several more years, which at this time seems feasible. I'm pretty sure that if Kerry's anti-war supporters took a break from the picket lines to become informed voters they'd realize that their beloved candidate isn't so in sync with their peaceful vision. And that's just it, there are very few informed voters, especially in the 18-24 group. I thank MTV for their half hearted and more than slightly biased "choose or lose" campaign. I wasted an hour watching MTV News investigation of outsourcing complete with commentary from Walter Cronkite. What did I learn? Nothing but a bunch of outright lies. Mr. Gideon Yago claims that the current government gives tax breaks to companies who outsource. Au contrair my dear friend. Instead, President Bush has been attempting to provide tax breaks for companies so that they can keep jobs in the U.S. Current taxes make it nearly impossible for companies to profit while concentrating labor in the U.S. You know, if I remember correctly Heinz Ketchup, the corporation to which Kerry's wife is heiress, outsources all of its manufacturing and production jobs. Oh the hilarity.
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