Here at Allegheny, most students know that when a discussion of politics comes up in a dorm or at a party the conversation turns into an egocentric, uncomfortable talk about how China is going to take over the world or  America is on the fast track to the same fate as the Roman Empire.
I get it –– we are all smart people who can talk about politics here in academia.
But seriously, don’t be the guy in the bar at the beginning of Good Will Hunting –– politics is a more complicated matter than that.
Accept you aren’t going to save the world from your privileged, social change sanctuary that you built for yourself at 520 N Main Street (I’ll admit I have one too).
Walk down to Chestnut Street just off Diamond Park, knock on the door of one of the political headquarters (there are three within a block of each other here in Meadville), and I promise you that the trip will completely bust your academic bubble, when you find out there are other states of mind other than the technocrat–in–the–making.
You’ll discover how possible it is for your education to get in the way of your learning because you’ll discover your own imperfections and how liberating thinking for yourself is.
There will be people twice and three times your age, people younger, people with accents, people who smell bad, people who smell good, from whom you can and should be learning.
These citizens, whoever they may be, tea partiers, liberals, hair stylists, (insert arbitrary interest group here) who are sharing stories (like they always have) with complicated arguments that don’t fit into a candidate’s talking points or the polls you see on TV, read about in the latest Center for Political Participation publication or witness in the very elite candid situations that you will see at the debate this Thursday.
There are two kinds of people who do not get involved: those who are privileged and not–well–connected (because they don’t have to be) and those, like the kid I met who was working at McDonalds a few weeks back, who feels that he is subject to the life his government has doomed him to even if he votes or gets involved.
My argument for you today is stolen from Mike Kelly, Republican nominee in Pennsylvania’s third district and its, “It is time to simplify our public policy” after the elections this November.
This very simple remark is the reason I am supporting the GOP ticket this November.
This simple statement represents the heart of the things that are dividing our nation today.
Our intellectual egos have done nothing but lay the ground work for more top–down, technocratic, heavy government spending approaches that not only turn people away from politics, but any form of service, or community involvement.
As young adult, I see the Republican Party as the party of change.
I always have because when I was growing up the influence the government has had on individual character was so easy to see.
Students wake up to the reality that they are going to have to pay off a bigger debt with a smaller salary that is if they are lucky enough to have a salary.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the number of unemployed workers between the ages of 16 and 24 was 18.6 million.
This year, the share of young people who were employed during the summer months was 48.9 percent, the lowest rate since records were first kept in 1948.
So after the heroic promises of the Obama administration and the Pelosi and Reid Congress, I have been asking my peers “Are you better off four trillion dollars of your future later?”
While my answer is obviously no, I consider myself fortunate to be able to come up with one.