The Bystander Blog

A copy of this opinion is set to appear in the 12-3-09 edition of The Collegian Reporter.

There are a lot of stereotypes that are attached to American political parties, politicians, and politics in general.  Like many biases, these political stereotypes may be partially valid criticisms or may be based off of solid opinions.

But frankly, they should make us all a little nervous.  I know it’s easy to sit here and remind everyone that stereotypes are bad.  Everyone probably agrees.  But when I look around, I feel that stereotypes and misperceptions are playing too big a role in our politics today.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that they’re one reason why Republicans lost the last election.  It’s not the only reason, to be sure.  Republicans made some mistakes in the previous eight years, and many of their policies were controversial.  But I don’t think it was the policies alone that drove voters on Election Day–it was their perceptions and ideas of Republicans.

Take, for example, the video and website “I’m Voting Republican,” subtitled: “You’ll Get What You Deserve.”  This short video featured a variety of actors portraying Americans who were blissfully content with all of the terrible things Republicans were doing.

“I’m voting Republican,” says a public safety officer, “because sometimes the Constitution is just one big, inconvenient headache.”

“I’m voting Republican,” says a doctor, “because I don’t really want a cure for AIDS or breast cancer.  They’re just gays and women.”

“We’re voting Republican,” says an African American couple, “because we like a conservative majority on the Supreme Court.  We really like knowing that even if we’re separate, we’ll still be called equal.”

If your blood isn’t already boiling, you can check out the rest of the video online.  But here’s a few ideas I’d like to throw back at these people:

“I’m voting Democrat because I want to see billions of dollars in federal debt passed on to my children.  They won’t need a government by then.  Plus, if we need more money, we can just keep borrowing it from China.”

“I’m voting Democrat because I want a liberal majority on the Supreme Court.  Americans are homophobic and won’t give homosexual couples their right to marry through ballot initiatives.  They need a court to force them to change.”

Are these criticisms unfair?  Absolutely!  They’re stereotypes!  They’re damaging political dialogue in America.  And while I feel that they’ve hurt Republicans more than Democrats in recent years, they can work both ways.

The reason why Republicans are being hurt more is, in my opinion, because they aren’t responding well enough to the criticisms.  I feel that this affects people our age more than others because many of the entertainers we listen to, who make use of these stereotypes for comedy or art, are often not big fans of Republicans.

And while I’m not going to deny Colbert his right to parody conservative pundits or Letterman his right to crack a few jokes, I do urge you to read between the lines.

Politics is an imperfect game.  And it’s far more complicated than can be captured by a stereotype or a TV commercial.  It’s not black and white, much as we’d like to think it is.

Check out my latest CR Editorial:

A Hobbesian approach to ‘All’s fair in love and war’

The College Republicans hosted Congressman Steve King at Morningside for a miniature town hall-style event today.  I got a picture with him, and I’ll post it when I get a chance.

I’d never heard King speak in person before this.  I’d heard many of the criticisms about him.  It’s pretty much impossible to avoid it if you live in Iowa’s 5th District.

I was pleasantly surprised with King’s speech.  He set the agenda and talked about cap and trade, health care reform, and illegal immigration.  I expected him to focus more on the social issues like abortion and gay marriage, and I’m glad that he didn’t.  It was very interesting to hear what he had to say about these other issues, and I found myself agreeing with him quite a bit.

He was opposed to cap and trade for many reasons.  And although he discussed global warming, I wouldn’t say it was the focus of his argument.  It was more about the damage it could do to American businesses and jobs.  His health care discussion focused on the problems of having a bureaucracy try to run a private sector system.  I was able to ask him a question on this issue: whether or not he would support a high tax on those who don’t buy private insurance while subsidizing the poor who can’t afford it (in order to avoid having a public option).  I’m not sure whether or not he would support the mandate, but he did express apprehension toward the subsidy, since it could lead to a subsidy for more and more people than was originally intended.   Finally, his illegal immigration ideas consisted of securing the border and deporting or punishing illegal immigrants.

I disagree with Mr. King on this last point, because I think there are better things the American government could spend our tax money on than removing people from our country who could be working, paying taxes, and contributing to our economy.  But other than that, it was a great event.  He was a good speaker, calm, and worked the crowd well.  Obviously I’m not going to agree with everything that any politician says, but I will say that I have a higher opinion of Mr. King after this event.

We’ve all heard the criticisms of our Congressman.  But have you ever heard him speak in person?  If you haven’t, I highly encourage you to attend one of his events, even if you don’t like him.  In fact, your disliking of him should make you want to go to his event even more.

I was able to talk to Mr. King a little bit after the event, and I gave him a copy of the Collegian Reporter.  He was actually quite thankful for it, and he said he would give it a read.

I’m looking at starting a new feature in both the print and web editions of the CR.  In order to get students more interested in the activities of Student Government, I’ve created a couple of charts (courtesy of information from Kendra Koch) to show how money is being spent.  It’s not very flashy yet, but it’s what I was able put together so far.  Take a look, and let me know what you think:

September Budget Expenses

October Budget Expenses

The Collegian Reporter News Page

Check out my latest CR opinion:

Freshman-only halls can be counterproductive

Check it out:

Inspiring speaker lacking in recent Waitt Lecture

Last Friday, Ben Stein spoke for the Waitt Lecture at Morningside.  You can see my video of the event, as well as Michelle Delaney’s report, by clicking here.

Overall, I thought Stein was a good speaker who knew how to talk to an audience.  I would have liked to have heard a more interesting speech–more than simply how to be a good person and Stein’s own political views.  Not that these things aren’t important–it just seemed like Stein didn’t get very deep into the issues.  Of course, after seeing President Musharraf speak at Augustana College, it’d be hard for Morningside to top that.

I’ll probably have a full editorial for the next edition of the CR about Stein.

New editorial is up!  Check it out!

Problems in Pakistan pertinent to Americans

Earlier tonight, the Morningside Civic Union hosted an event that I planned: the showing of Ben Stein’s 2008 documentary, “Expelled.”  It was a great event, and the discussion afterward was pretty substantial.

If you haven’t seen the film, Stein begins by making the argument that Intelligent Design isn’t free to be talked about in academia–with Evolution or Darwinism having a hegemony.  In the end, though, he ends up almost making an argument of religious belief vs. atheism.  He also, in my opinion, made unfair associations between academics, Darwinists, and fascism.  I could expound quite a bit on this movie, especially the ways in which it shows the weaknesses of visual media like movies and television, but I won’t.  Might be an idea for a future editorial.

I am, though excited to see Ben Stein speak at Morningside on Friday.  I’ll probably have photos and thoughts then.

Both the Musharraf event of last Friday, as well as the research I’ve been doing in its wake, have been very interesting for me.  Since I’m taking an international relations class right now, I’ll probably end up doing a project on this country.  It’s a country that I didn’t know much about, and I’m sure a lot of Americans were in the same boat with me.

I don’t want to say too much right now because I’m sure I’ll have a future editorial to write about this event.  But here’s what I’m concerned about at this moment.  President Musharraf was a friend of ours while he was president of Pakistan.  Friends in the Middle East are good, right?  Well, what about the fact that he had suspended Pakistan’s constitution toward the end of his term, violated free speech, and fired a bunch of judges.

Does that hurt us in the long run?