Conservatism in High School
There's a young man, a student at a local high school, who has fostered a good deal of controversy lately by founding a conservative club on campus. I saw him on O'Reilly's show a couple of weeks ago and there was an extensive write-up about him in this morning's Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
Although I suspect (okay, I know) that I disagree with this young man's political views almost across the spectrum, the real problem I have with him is the way he expresses his views. It's not that he's a right-wing jerk; it's just that he's a jerk.
Speaking of his 25 year old sister, a school teacher in Boston, he said "She's a liberal. I go, 'Kate, you have a diseased mind. We'll get you help.'" Cute, eh?
According to this young man, his sister says he is stirring up all this controversy for himself, while he insists he is doing it for the conservative cause. If that is his intention, he needs to step back and rethink his approach. The things he says, and the way he says them, can only annoy and enrage those who don't already agree with him. Even O'Reilly told him that. By his own admission (he thinks the Republican party is too liberal), his cause is on the right wing fringe of the American political spectrum. You don't advance your cause my antagonizing those who don't already agree with you.
The young man's role model is Michael Savage. He even aspires to be a radio talk show host himself. Those two facts reinforce my belief that the young man is engendering all this turmoil for self-aggrandizement more than anything else. Two kinds of people listen to Michael Savage; those who agree with him and those who don't, but listen to him for amusement or because they like to become enraged while driving home (a whole weird pathology in itself). Those in the second group aren't going to cross over into first. Michael Savage is a lunatic on the right-wing fringe. I fear that the young man may be as well.
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