So everyone knows that Berkeley is completely overrun by Democrats right? Wrong. Turns out 40% of the student population is actually registered as Republican. This lays the groundwork for an extremely volatile environment and allows for confrontations like the one I mentioned between the Traditional Family Property supporters and the Student Coalition for Marriage Equality. Now that's not to say that all Republicans are crazy conservatives; I know I'm not. In fact, most people I know assume that I'm a Democrat because my views are so moderate, especially when it comes to social issues.
But I regress, as the topic of this post is supposed to be about the 2 guys on my floor who embody this political struggle in its entirety. Their names are Matthew and Alex, and they've known each other since high school. Matthew is an avid Democrat who identifies as Agnostic, while Alex is registered as Republican and attends First Presbyterian Church every Sunday. Now they are rooming together, which creates an environment with the potential for enough animosity to start a 3rd World War. The interesting thing is that it doesn't. In fact, their friendship seems to flourish in the differences that separate them. Sure, they get into arguments every now and then, but each one respects the others' opinion. Watching them is usually quite amusing, and friends and family seem to get a kick out of listening to them bicker about the upcoming Presidential election.
In the end, I think that politicians today could learn a thing or two from these guys. Politics have become so focused on party differences that we seem to have forgotten that everyone is united by a single goal. We all are striving for a better, safer world to live in, we just have different means for attaining that end. And if you eliminate extremist groups, we all pretty much have similar definitions of what a "better" world consists of. Thus, the reason this post is not titled, "Donkeys vs. Elephants."
Democrats and Republicans are necessary to one another and to the progression of society. If we didn't have Democrats pushing for social change, we wouldn't be able to change the some of the misguided views that have been established by our ancestors. But if we didn't have Republicans keeping society in check, we'd all eventually live in a communist society where we hold hands while singing Kumbaya. Okay maybe that last bit was a little biased, but you get the point.
Unfortunately, my moderate beliefs place me directly between Alex and Matthew, and most of our time spent together consists of each of them trying to pull me further to one side of the political spectrum.
Does anyone else smell a sitcom?
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About Me
- Jackie Blanchard
- Berkeley, CA, United States
- "There's really no rhyme or reason to why I do what I do. If for nothing else I do it because I want to and it feels right. You can't really explain intuition, much less inspiration. You just have to forget your fears, throw caution to the wind and keep both fingers crossed when it speaks to you and follow. There's no rule anywhere stating that you can't move just because the world isn't watching."
What Am I Doing?
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7 comments:
For the record, I'm not really an atheist...it'd be more accurate to put "questioning"
And yes, "that last bit" was a bit more than a "little" biased...
Great blog. You should have heard the argument that ensued when Matt said that Palin supports Pat Buchananan. It was epic!
(I won, by the way.)
If they don't turn you into a junkie or a zombie on the street
If they don't turn you into a yo-cat or a grinning jesus freak
If they don't take away your brains or turn your body inside out
If they don't take away your passion with a color tv set
They'll take away your heart and soul
But remember what the wise man said
There is nothing to fear but fear itself
D. Elfman
Seriously, with all of this stuff going on all the time....tree sitters, bagpipes....how are any of you guys actually getting an education. If I were up there, I would be suing for all of the distractions. :)
You "won" by decrying all the evidence I mentioned as "inventions" by the "liberal media." By contrast, all the right-wing hard-liners that you cited were rock-solid as evidence. Quite a fair argument...
It's so true. In High School, I had a friend who was a socialist by his own admission. He would very often argue in favor of the ideas of Marx and others like him. I on the other hand am a relatively outspoken moderate Republican (outspoken and moderate are definitely not opposites). When we were in the same government class last year, the teacher would often bait us so that we could get into a political argument to keep the rest of the class interested.
But he was (and still is, though he doesn't go to Cal) one of my best friends. I learned a lot about my own beliefs in light of his informed opposition. It was amazing to have someone that I could disagree with in a rational manner and still be friends. And on a few occasions, we managed to find common ground.
I agree, today's politicians could take a lesson from the real world.
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