Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Political Ponderings

This is going to be a controversial post, so hopefully I'll get a lot of comments. :)

I always thought I was a conservative Republican, because all I knew about Democrats was their acceptance of abortion and gay marriage, both of which are strongly discouraged in my religion. Besides, I thought that elephants were cuter than donkeys, and so useful with their trunks, which can feed them or cool them or swat the flies away. When asking my parents why they were Republicans, my mom said something about the party being the lesser of two evils. I never really understood or cared. I used to say, "As long as we don't have a king, I'm good." I was apathetic, and thought that to be involved in politics meant to grow up, so I avoided them like the plague. Besides, Poly=many, tics=annoying little bugs, right?

This summer I had a lot of discussions, exploring my mind and opinions with friends who listened and respected them. I've been really excited about my major, Sociology, and a lot of our discussions were focused around it. It's been fascinating to think about societies, especially ours, and analyzing the issues and possible solutions. But politics naturally became part of these kinds of conversations... it was unavoidable. We talked about gay marriage and abortion. We talked about welfare and homelessness. We talked about the environment and gas prices and the war in Iraq. We talked about adulty-type things. And yet it was wonderful! I enjoyed discussing and suggesting and thinking about these things.

People have told me lately, that I'm liberal. This was a surprise; as I said before, I always considered myself conservative. From some, especially people my age, I hear good things about being liberal... like it means I'm open minded and I care about what's best for the society. But from others, often older folks, I hear liberals talked about like devil-worshipers, which makes things awkward when it seems that I'm slowly becoming one of them. People say that most college students are liberal. Is this divide a difference in maturity or wisdom? Or are younger people with less experience really more open minded and willing to see and discuss more than just one side of an issue?

Remember, you don't have to agree. You just have to understand. Discuss, think, ponder, wonder, ask, think again. I don't know all the answers to those controversial issues in our country and in our world. But they're wonderful to think about.

To give my parents credit, later when I discussed these things with them again, they gave me a more thoughtful answer as to why they are conservative. But I don't think they realize what is happening to their little girl...

4 comments:

Gabe said...

Diane, Diane, Diane... where did we ever go wrong with you ;-)

Keith said...

Hmmm. I wonder which friends you've been talking to. ;)

I'll put my response on my blog by noon. You don't want it all here, so I won't clutter your page. It's something I've been wanting to write anyway.

Sharon Quinn said...

Way to explore other points of view, and I'm not just saying that because I want you to convert. :) Ant and I watched just as much of the Republican National Convention as we did the Democratic, and I think it was really healthy. I can't say that I'm not a Republican if I don't know what they're saying, right? Well, as it turns out, I'm still a dem on the vast majority of issues, and definitely disagree on a few. You can probably guess on which.

Hana said...

I have to say you may be called a liberal there at BYU, but I was also called a solid liberal at UVSC and here in the real world I am definitely a conservative so keep that gradient in mind - its really skewed back home. Also as far as political "maturity" is concerned the liberals are mainly college students because liberals tend to look out for the disadvantaged while conservatives tend to look for ways to keep the rights of their own labor and help the disadvantaged in their own way and not a forced government way. I would love to talk to you more about it because it is kind of hard to write deep political thoughts on a random blog... not that your blog is random... but me and your blog combined - WOW