As I scanned the op-ed section of The Tufts Daily last week, I reached an article on the virtues of Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska), Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) vice-presidential nominee ("The Democrats' Palin problem," Sept. 8). Though the bent seemed conservative, I ignored any compulsion I had to turn the page and, instead, read through to gather whatever points could be gained from the piece. I found the article well-written, logically presented and politically relevant.
Yet in the writer's arguments there were echoes of political epithets that seem to be surfacing more and more often lately: "Washington Elites" and "intellectuals tucked safely away in their ivory towers." While this sinister labeling seems mild, it is a reflection of a larger feeling within the conservative community about the nature of Democrats. A copy of The Primary Source released during Orientation Week decries "Smelly Hippies," "Hairy Feminists" and "Marxist Profs" as an omnipresent source of militant liberalism. After all, all good conservatives know that all Democrats are pot-smoking, out-of-touch, upper-middle class, overpoweringly academic, militant vegans who don't shower for days on end.
Many paint the Democrats as out of touch with blue-collar America. In order to solve the problem, we could make a comparison between the parties and their candidates. We are given a choice between a candidate who grew up in poverty, living on food stamps, and a candidate who recently forgot how many houses he owns. We are given a choice between a candidate who has proposed tax cuts on the middle class while raising taxes on the wealthy and a candidate whose economic advisor called the recession "mental" and labeled America "a nation of whiners." Yet, somehow, I still hear talk of leftists and of radical idealist liberals, who do not realize the true struggles faced by people every day in this country.
To be perfectly frank, I find this view to be an utter misrepresentation of what the Democratic Party — and to extend the discussion further — progressive thought, is all about. Matthew Ladner, the author of the Palin-based op-ed, writes pointedly of "the difference between the liberal elites who talk about America's middle class and the hockey moms, fishermen and soldiers who make up our middle class." Now, as a liberal, I personally cannot claim to be a hockey mom or a soldier; but I am middle class, I am a fisherman and I do not take kindly to being called an elitist.
I am not a Democrat because my parents told me to be a Democrat. I am not a Democrat because I, as the conservative community would love you to believe, am a slave to the pop culture that has grown around Obama. I am not a Democrat because I am a socialist, Marxist, hippy or whichever classification of cultural radical the right would like to link to progressives. Nor do I, as previously asserted, prescribe to my beliefs because I sit atop academia's ivory tower, isolated and out-of-touch from the concerns of all Americans, all-the-while being entrenched, steadfast and pigheaded in leftist and extremist doctrines which threaten to obliterate and desecrate the very foundations of our country.
No, I am not that Democrat.
I am a Democrat because, too many times, I have listened to my mother question how she will make it through the week without spending money on gas. I am a Democrat because I have seen a friend sent to Iraq. I am a Democrat because I have watched my parents struggle to find a way to put me through college. I am a Democrat because I have taken my paycheck home once every two weeks knowing that the number on the check will quickly vanish as inflation and everyday costs skyrocket. I am a Democrat because I have listened to my high school friends talk about the increasing number of people we know losing their houses. I am a Democrat because I wonder if there will be Social Security left for when my parents retire. I am a Democrat because I believe that CEOs and stockbrokers should pay a greater percentage of their incomes to taxes than I am paying. I am a Democrat because I grew up in the land of the free and believe it should stay free. I am a Democrat because I have watched over the last eight years as our country has turned from prosperity to recession, from prestige to embarrassment.
In short, I am a Democrat because I love this country. I am not an elitist. I am not a slave of the media. I am essentially a blue-collar kid, going to a white-collar school, growing up in America and hoping that for the next four years things turn out alright. A Democrat could be anyone from a mechanic to a college professor. In the end, what unites us is a simple hope that the next four years are better than the last eight.
--
Jack Miszencin is a freshman who has not yet declared a major.
--
