Personally, I consider myself a liberal Catholic. I'm no crazy zealot, but I have studied and follow the reason behind the teachings of the Church. In fact, I'd probably be a Democrat if the party wasn't so disrespectful to life. Although I may side with Democrats on most social aspects, my positions on abortion and euthanasia would probably label me as a "closed-minded, anti-choice heathen." I might be offended if I wasn't right. Oh well. The GOP isn't for me either. The Republican Party has always struck me as quite unaccommodating to the socio-economically disadvantaged. Oh wait, they're supposed to be compassionate now. Well, whatever they are, I am not part of either party's secular agendas.
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According to the data, the United States isn't as liberal as the media would like us to believe. The 1998 survey data states that 51 percent of the respondents were Democrats and 37 percent were Republicans. When asked whether they identified themselves as liberal or conservative, only 18 percent identified themselves as liberal. In contrast, a full 30 percent of the respondents called themselves conservative. Moderates numbered 28 percent. This data made me very happy because it suggested that reason may still prevail over personal preference. The world may not be going to hell in a hand basket. Well, one can always hope.
Of course, being a certain public institution in Ann Arbor, we've got to figure that the percentage of liberals on campus is probably a lot higher than 18 percent. Still, I'm happy to see that quite a few of us "conservatives" exist out there. To celebrate, I thought I'd share some of my conservative opinions about recent events that have been in the news.
n The KKK is bad. Everyone knows it. I don't think that we should outright refuse them the right to speak, but we shouldn't make it easy for them. If there was a group of racist African-American's calling for the destruction of all races that weren't African-American, I'd bet that the city bureaucracy would have come out in full force. The group's request for use of the city hall area would have been placed under a large boulder with the word "red tape" scrawled across it. By the time the African-American group received permission, they'd probably be told that every day except the coldest day of winter was "reserved" for the next 30 years. Make the KKK use M-Pathways to get approval for one of their riot-inciting presentations. That would slow them down.
n This Supreme Court case about student fees has really got me excited. I'd like to see our student fee abolished. Not because I'm hard up for cash or anything. I can spare five bucks and change. I just want to be able to give it to my choice of groups. On my income tax form, I have the ability to choose whether or not to give money to the presidential election campaign. Why can't all students designate where we want our money to go? It could be added to CRISP. "Please select the group or groups that you would like as recipients of your student fee." I'm serious. I think this idea could really fly if enough people got behind it. Take the money out of the hands of the MSA and put it into the hands of we, the people. The only people who would think this is unfair are those who might unfairly benefit from a sympathetic MSA. You remove the possibility of corruption if you remove the source of power.
Finally, a word about the X-Files. Mulder and Scully, you've got to stop kissing! You're practically brother and sister. What will happen when you two get romantically involved? Will it be like Fred and Daphne? "Where did Mulder and Scully go? Oh, they must have run off to solve the case." Yeah right. No love on the X-Files! More Aliens. More Conspiracy. No Kissing.
- Mike Lopez can be reached via
e-mail at manatlarge@umich.edu.
11-18-99
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