Today, I discovered that one of my new favorite people is quietly a Republican. This is a fact she works quite hard to keep on the DL, which both surprises me and makes an awful lot of sense. I always assume that young, Californian Stanford students are liberals, for no real reason other than the overwhelming liberalism of the state of California and college campuses in general, but I guess really it shouldn’t surprise us all so much that some of our peers are rooting for McCain.
My friend is not a person who is silent about her opinions. She is always the student most likely to fight with a professor in class, to declare out loud her hatred for some revered member of the English canon, or to point out the utter idiocy of that thing you just said without thinking in lecture. This makes her sound like a very difficult person, and indeed, at first glance, she can be. However, she is also highly fashionable, deeply cool, and very funny.
And (my god!), a Republican.
She says (and I believe her) that it can be kind of scary to be conservative in such a wildly liberal place. Somewhat to my continual surprise, I really enjoy her as a person–so much, in fact, that I’m afraid to ask her about her politics. I’m afraid she’ll say something and lose her sparkle, or that I’ll say something and she’ll decide I am The Enemy. So how do you talk to your conservative friends in an election year? Do you ask these questions? Do you have these fights? Or do you just tell them how totally adorable their sweaters are, and try to convince them that Jack Kerouac is, indeed, worthy of their time?
