I'm Wade Anderson, and I Approved this Gambit
- Wade
Why do I care?
I did care, ten years ago. I lived and died with the Op/Ed page. I followed electoral politics daily. I could name all six men who were running for governor in the state. I gave up my senior year interim to intern in the office of a U.S. rep.
Then I stopped caring. My internship was eye-opening, and not in a good way. Paul Wellstone died. I didn't even vote in 2002. Politics (and government) became to me like golf-- know how it works, watch the major events, but otherwise ignore it. And while it wasn't blissful, ignorance was fine. I'm sure my blood pressure went down.
And then it happened. "It" being my father-in-law's gift subscription of The National Review. He and I are cut from different political cloth, and NR is definitely tilted more towards his world view. But it got me thinking about issues that I'd been glossing over for half a decade.
Now look what happened. I'm getting more and more engaged in the political scene. I read NR cover to cover the day I get it. We're getting the Star Tribune again so I can track state politics better. I check Drudge, Slate, and New Republic's websites daily. I'm even listening to the streaming audio of the new Al Franken radio network as I'm writing this.
The only issue I'm discovering: instead of consistently landing on the left side of any issue as I used to do, I'm now all over the ideological map. Example: Clinton was great. Bush cheated. Redistribution of wealth, while annoying, is just the right thing to do in a civilized society. More guns is not a good thing. Unions, while not perfect, are better than no unions. All of those things don't shock me. But newcomers to Wade's platform include: Media should be regulated much more tightly. This 9/11 panel is a pointless witch hunt. I'm not sure John Kerry is the best Democrat for the job. Racial preferences are wrong. And I find myself being pretty conservative on social issues as well.
All of which is a little confusing, but probably the place I want to be. In the past I would align myself with liberal and Democratic positions just because that's what I was, and didn't put in the time to figure out how *I* felt about an issue. There are still a lot of those people out there, and it's a bad, bad thing. Political parties are weaker now than ever before, and that's fine-- it shows that people are thinking for themselves, not just accepting what the machine tells them.
So, all in all, I don't think this political renaissance is a bad thing. It should make the process of coming up with simpleprop topics easier, at least. :)
What do you think? Drop us a line at webmaster@simpleprop.com and give us some
feedback. Maybe we'll even run your letters in future Gambits. 'The Daily Gambit' is updated every weekday.
