Joe's Blog

When president bush got elected in 2000 i was ten years old. Young and ignorent me was only made concious of the event via my parents, who by chance were republicans. Naturaly i wanted to be like my father and watched with my fingers crossed as those blessed red states apeared. Four years and one terrrorist attak later i was a freshman in high-school and exposed to a multitude of stimuli. One of these being a large click of pre-pubesent librals that dominate the political opinion of the school. you either had no opinion or were pushing for John Kerry with all your might. all it took from me was a few playful taunts and jokes to swing the election to a Bush victory. At the time i didnt understand why i was a republican, i just knew i was. If the September 11 attak never happened perhaps it would be a differnt story, but this is the way it was.

     four years of high-school does a lot to a person. We can all agree that this is a critical time period for development, both mentaly and physicaly. The matters that concern politics and political parties were completly absent from my mind during these four years. not an ounce of thought or consideration went into my opinion or stance at the time. I was occupied with chasing down pretty girls or bong hits...    But when senior year came around, and i had been marinating in a anti-establishment, liberal saterated enviroment , something amazing happened. I was handed a voter registration form by the most far lefted individual i have ever laid eyes on, the american literature teacher. And i circled "I" for independent. later i wrote in a journal, which was asigned by the same teacher to express who we endorsed for president, "i would like the chance to vote for Guliani or Obama because of their leadership abilities."

By this time another phenominal event had happened, the liberal click that had been known as the "nerd herd" and disrespected by all had taken power as the "in" crowd and became leaders in all fields. Starting with the arts, guitar club, battle of the bands, organization of student council activities. 

I struggled to publish articles in the sports section of our school paper despite being the most experienced in the field. Also once got into a heated argument concerning a contradiction in opinions expressed in one of my articles about the 2008 beijing olympics, and one published the week earlyer in the editorial section. My article ended up being published. I did not know it but his was my first taste of a political rivalry. Just in time for the begining of the primary season. Simoltaniuosly i became enlightened and saw my soroundings in a new light. i became aware of the fact that for the past eight years i had been coming under a barrage of mortar fire in the form of anti-administration sediment.

After attempting to swtich my registration to republican over the internet i still held a slight interest in OBama. something about him, he just looks good. Not until the media covered the campaigns of the candidates daily did i start to learn any facts about him. Once McCain became the republican nomine my political stance was firmly conservative. Then it began, i studied historic people like Dwight David Eisenhauer, and the contrast betweeon Paul Mcartney and John Lennon. Disected the song lyrics of Bob Dylan. Only after watching a Jack Black movie did i have a fantastic memory....Elvis! what unslefish act did man perform in order to recieve the grace that was Elvis Presley and his light. My McCain T-shirt, which was well worth the $25 donation, came in the mail and now i am ready.  Between reading Mark Twain, watching the military channel and Fox News, making sure to vote in the CNN online pole everyday, and ridding my bike everywere i can(to be an example of how to deal with gas prices), it was hard to find time to watch MTV or smoke the peace pipe. 

one day i turned on the tv and saw hilary was out of the race, thank God. all i needed was to see one clip of obama proffessing he had a different view of the future than McCain and a flashback to reverand wrights hateful speech. "i want to end the ball game in washington" Barak Obama.....

one thing this primary season has done was make me a devout practicing republican. also driving me to launch a massive inquiry of the democratic party and the struggle which began in the 1960s. i dont go to church on sunday but i bought a bebe gun and make sure to get a dose of ACDC or Wings daily.