by krosch on Sat Jan 20, 2007 9:45 am
Its not online yet but hopefully in the near future. Yeah its a conservative newspaper just like the Ripsaw is a liberal Newspaper. The stories are obviously more editoral in nature.
Here is my article though.
Title The Republican Sterotype by Eldon Krosch Jr.
What do Marilyn Manson, Alice Cooper Charles Barkley, Clint Eastwood, The Rock, Ben Stein and I have in common? We are all Republicans, even though most of us don't fit a stereotypical conservative mold.
When I attended my first Conservative Political Action Conference in
Washington DC, I made the trip in a beat-up 1990 Ford Taurus with a very
liberal friend of mine. He was sometimes of the opinion that anyone
supporting Republicans was screwing the common working individual. He
would often fail to define this belief, but it is not an uncommon situation from those with strong political beliefs, whatever ideal they subscribe to. However, we weregreat friends, and his desire to tour DC effectively cut the cost of my road trip in half.
Greeting me when I finally arrived at the conference was a 400 plus pound man with arms covered in tattoos. He looked like a motorcycle gang tough guy from a bad action movie. He was volunteering and handing out literature at the Pro-Life Booth. This was the week of the Columbia Space Shuttle accident, and later when President Bush was speaking about the deaths of the shuttle crew, he started screaming about how liberal President Bush was. "Thousands die every year because of abortion and he says nothing, but he will speak to the nation about these 7," he said. Not what I was expecting at a conservative political conference, but certainly a lesson in not reading a book by its cover.
My discussions with my friend throughout the weekend of course continued
when we visited a few of the sites around the capital. Our discussions were
civil and sadly that is more than I can say about a number of political
discussions I have been involved in, despite my attempts to the contrary.
I have had discussions with liberal acquaintances, friends, or random people about many issues where I hold a "liberal" stance. Some of these include Gay marriage, the benefits of being in a labor union, growing up on welfare, and other issues. We are having a great conversation, and they love everything I have to say. Then the ugly R word comes out, and they are suddenly angry that I am a Republican. "How can you possibly be a Republican?" they ask.
Well that could be a book in itself, but to make a long story short: I agree
with the Republicans more than the Democrats. Often people have this non-existent stereotype in mind when they think of a person with a particular political background. These generalizations, most often as you can see from the previous examples, are far off base.
There are people out there who believe you are stupid, immoral, corrupt, or simply wrong for believing differently than they do. Though obviously if you have been reading this article, you understand I do agree with many of these people on issue X just before they find out my party affiliation, and then I am quickly deemed immoral, and most likely, stupid.
Suddenly in a flash their opinion of me switches from an enlightened person who understands the issues to ignorant in a single statement. If you followed the liberal stereotype of Republicans, you would believe we are the party of intolerance. While I won't accuse the Democrats of being the party of intolerance, it's a bad joke at best to suggest they are somehow more tolerant of opposing ideals than Republicans. Sometimes if you have the wrong kind of diversity, whether that's an idea, belief in religion, philosophy or a political party, quite simply you are wrong and
unintelligent.
Much of this misunderstanding is based on the stereotypical Conservative
Republican. I have met literally thousands of activists during my political
involvement. I have never met this stereotypical Republican, though I have looked often. Perhaps someone out there can point this person out to me sometime, so I can forward a few comments to him or her that I have heard over the years.
On the drive back from Washington DC during one of the many political
discussions with my friend, he said, "Well I may never agree with you, but
after this weekend I know you are in politics for the right reasons." This
statement moved me more than most statements in political discussions ever will, because the political arena would be a much better place if more
people came to realize differences of opinions don't necessarily mean
differences in morality, intelligence, goals, or other such things.
Now ask yourself a few questions. Do you believe a difference of opinion
represents intolerance or stupidity on the part of the other person? If your
answer is yes then look into a mirror and reflect for a moment on
intolerance and how exactly you define it. You may find intolerance staring
back at you from behind the mirror.
