I wore my Sarah Palin t-shirt to school on Friday, paired with a "John McCain for President 2008" button on my backpack.
In Psych class, before class had started, one of the other students said to me "Hey Sabra, someone put a McCain button on your backpack," apparently thinking it was a sabotage job or something.
What followed was a rather lively--but polite, because this is San Antonio--argument about politics, during which it was determined that my prof doesn't think Joe Biden's comment about Barack Obama being the first "articulate and bright and clean" black man to run for President was racist, that Ronald Reagan was the last true conservative Republican President, and that MTV doesn't belong on campus because they are corrupting the minds of our youth (that was actually another student saying this, by the way, not the prof), Mike--the fellow who made the original comment to me--said "I thought you were a liberal! You don't look like a conservative. I'm a Democrat and I look like a Democrat. You don't look like a Republican."
When I asked him what the hell a conservative looks like, then, the prof said "Oh Mike, you're in trouble now" and left the room.
I never did get an answer out of him, but I've pondered the question. What the hell does a conservative look like? A liberal? Maybe it was the scent of patchouli I emitted earlier in the semester (I even found patchouli deoderant, and no I don't use it to cover up herb), 'cause I'm pretty sure I've left my tie-dye at home. I'm the second-oldest student in the room--behind only Mike himself--and I've referenced both my ex-husband's Navy days & my daughters in the recent past. I do have a peasant skirt or two, but I usually wear jeans.
I must admit I made the same mistake about Mike. Since he's older, clean-cut, and both ex-Army & an ex-cop, I figured he was somewhat conservative. Funny how we would each make the same mistake about the other.
He also asked me how the hell I can vote for McCain when I ride the bus. Coupla things in play here. One, the government has no bearing on my personal economics. Two, and much more salient a point, I don't ride the bus to school because I have to. I ride the bus to school because a semester pass costs the same as a parking permit, and with the pass I don't have to deal with the asinine parking situation on campus.
Which I guess is the answer to the question. I vote for McCain when I ride the bus 'cause I'm smart like that.
(Of course, I still have to wonder how this dude knows I ride the bus, 'cause that's the only class I have him in & I haven't noticed him anywhere else on campus. Which hints that he's paying a lot more attention to me than I am to him. Not an uncommon occurence.)
2 comments:
Invite him to a Sarah Palin campaign event. If he says yes, then he is seriously interested.
Many years ago I had a similar conversation with a co-worker. He drove a late-model Suburban and I drove a Geo Metro. He was an extreme liberal, and I had just experienced my Limbaugh-induced epiphany on The Way Things Ought to Be.
He asked how I, as a member of the vast, right-wing conspiracy, could drive an econobox while he, the enlightened one, drove an "urban assault vehicle" as he liked to call it.
I told him that I blamed society.
What does a conservative look like? I dunno.
Ted Nugent?
;-)
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