**For my style and editing course, we were asked to write a short essay (for further editing) addressing how we arrived at our respective political views--Was it religion, tradition, family life, a specific instance, etc.?
Both of my earliest memories of politics involve my father. One, being bored to death in the backseat of the car while the talk radio droned on (there was a lot of, “Daddy, can we listen to music now?!” on my part), and two—his disappointment after I told him I voted for Bill Clinton in the mock election at school my first grade year. I had intended to vote for Bush—but my best friend at the time told me that her dad told her that the Bush family had “big mean dogs” and that I shouldn’t vote for him because of it (the mind of a six year old is nothing but logical). For the longest time, I thought my father was disappointed in me because I voted for Clinton—it wasn’t until later on that I realized it was the fact that I “went with the crowd” and neglected to think for myself that probably disappointed him the most.
Both of my parents hold conservative political views. My mother was raised Catholic, and my father converted to Catholicism from the Baptist church when I was 8 or 9. Though my mother stays informed and definitely has an opinion about politics (she’s got an opinion about most things, really), it’s my father who really gets into it. Like most people, I tended to side with them on the issues growing up—mainly because I didn’t know enough (or care enough) to think differently. It wasn’t until my junior year or so of high school, with my eighteenth birthday and the ability to vote fast approaching, that I really began to think about what it was I thought about things.
My first reaction (like most teenagers) was to ideologically rebel against my parent’s views—which was difficult, because then I had to will myself to believe things that, instinctually, I found to be very wrong. Fortunately, I came to my senses, and approached things in a different way. Instead of rebelling, I started asking “Why?”—Why is the death penalty OK with Republicans, but abortion bad? If life has intrinsic value at one stage, doesn’t that carry through to all the stages of life? What’s wrong with higher taxes? With lower taxes? How do taxes even work? The questions kept coming—And still come to this day. I kept thinking “Oh, no, I have to figure this out, I have to pick a side!” when suddenly, I realized—what you believe can’t be neatly corralled into one specific party, though apparently, that’s how you have to vote. Now, I evaluate things case by case—I don’t describe myself as one particular party (although I do tend to vote Republican). And, though I vote, I find myself very cynical of the political process as a whole. All these politicians—with their slogans and catchphrases and fliers and automated phone calls—who are they really? Do they really intend to “change things for the better” or simply change things just enough so that they’ll be elected again two years from now? I know more about politics then I did when I was a kid, but sometimes, I still feel the same as that little girl, bored to death in the backseat—“Daddy, can we listen to music now?!”
