Recently I switched roommates. My roommate is really cool, interesting, laid-back, funny, supportive. She’s all the great adjectives I can think of. I like her a lot.
The other day, we were watching Wheel of Fortune. (She even loves cool game shows!)
When it was over, we were talking on the couch. Somehow the subject turned to politics.
She asked if I was a republican or democrat. I thought the question was almost funny. We’re two young girls living in Los Angeles.
I said I was pretty liberal. I almost didn’t even ask the question to her, ’cause you know, seriously?
But I did anyway, probably thinking we could bond over mutual love for Hillary Clinton. That’s when she said she was republican!
Wha -?
She suggested politics be a subject we don’t really discuss in our home. I couldn’t agree with her more. No need to fight with my roommate about something we’re both pretty strong in. (Sure, we could have reasoned debate. Perhaps we will if she’s still living here going into 2016 elections. But, you know, no need to be harp on something that doesn’t need to be harped on.)
Anyway, I just wanted to share my shock with you, and say that this is just yet another lesson to me to be more open and less-judgemental.
Usually when I hear the word “republican,” it conjures a lot of really not flattering images. I could easily have tension with someone from the get-go, assuming we can’t like each other if I hear “republican” first. To me, with how really crazy so many prominent republicans have been acting, republican almost acts as a bad word in my mind.
Sure, I want to believe in all this unity, across the aisle stuff. But ideas and practice can be hard. And when I hear the word “republican,” my muscles tense, my hair kind of stands on end a little – like I’m going to have to fight somebody.
But then I heard she was a republican. And it was a fabulous reminder that underneath it all, we’re all just people. She’s a great person who I like a lot! So, there you have it. The democrat and the the republican roommates.
Let the new sitcom begin. (Stick it in D.C., make them freshman senators.)
One thing you can tell yourself is that, because in the United States we have district-based representation with winner-take-all districts, and you live in a Democratic area in a Democratic state, her presence in your apartment leads to _more_ Democrats representing your area.
I’ll give you an example, since this is a bit esoteric. In Massachusetts,we send 9 people, all Democrats, to the U.S. House. Roughly 35-40% of Massachusetts voters vote Republican, though they’re spread pretty evenly across the state (apart from the super-Dem. Boston & inner suburbs). If these people all moved to Alabama or wherever, then our state population would be considerably smaller and we’d only be sending 5 or 6 Democratic representatives to the U.S. House.
So think of your local Republican as you would a Canada Goose. Sort of cute, and quite harmless, in small numbers. Only when you get too many of them does everything get covered in shit.
lol Thanks for another (and always interesting) comment, Kevin!