You Mean You're NOT A Republican!?
By Peter and Helen Evans (09/28/04)
This past week we were reminded yet again that some Republicans and/or conservatives are reluctant to admit who they are. Some are wary of scorn or ridicule, some are afraid they'll be yelled at on the street, some are afraid their car will be vandalized, some are afraid they'll lose their jobs or friends; in other words, there are lots of reasons they keep silent about their opinions and beliefs.
Yet, look at the polls. With President Bush surging ahead, we're obviously not a minority. It looks as if more than the half the nation will be voting for him. When we hide what we believe we're acting as if there actually is something to hide, perhaps something to be ashamed of.
Living here in Washington, DC, it's easy to feel that we're the minority, or the outsiders. There's even a joke about it. "If you're a Republican in the District of Columbia, then you must know every other Republican because there are so few of us." Well, that might make us feel special... for a moment. But what it really does is make us seem like the fringe rather than the mainstream.
What happens to fringe groups? Well, this week during the GOP USA conference we were wearing our badges as we chatted with someone on the sidewalk of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the hotel. A man passing by seemed to feel it was perfectly normal and acceptable to mutter something that rhymed with 'witch' at Helen, but prefaced with 'Republican'. Another attendee told us her niece had her car keyed after she put a "Bush/Cheney '04" sticker on the bumper, and another echoed that incident with her own car. There are reports of neighborhoods where swastikas were spray-painted on the sidewalk in front of homes displaying the "Bush/Cheney '04" yard sign. Having your car keyed may be ambiguous, but the open hostility expressed by Nazi graffiti on your sidewalk is over the top. William F. Buckley, Jr. called it the "smashing pumpkins" syndrome epitomized in pre-war Nazi Germany. When we thus acquiesce to overt bad behavior, we've let the anti-social genie out of the bottle of civilization and it will just become worse.
We're not suggesting we should consider ourselves helpless victims, but rather think about whether we're hiding our colors, our faith, our party too much and being unwitting accomplices to the smashing pumpkins mentality. Do we inwardly cringe when asked what party we belong to? Are we afraid to put up yard signs? Do we enjoy being special because we're part of a 'small' group?
If so, we need to change our attitude. If we can't stand up for our convictions in an election season, how can we continue to lead the world in the war against terrorists? So, the next time someone asks you how you're going to vote or who you support, tell them. Tell them as though it was the most natural thing in the world; sort of like the sun rising in the morning. Then, to bring it home, if you know they don't support the right man, look astonished and say, "You mean you're NOT a Republican!? You mean you're not going to vote for the best man?"
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