3B
Wednesday, March 28, 2018 // The Statement
Critical Questions: What’s a good liberal,
what’s a good conservative?
F
or those of you who sit back
and watch as this country gets
rocked by political turmoil
and maybe feel a little guilty about
that, this story’s for you.
In politics today, it seems as if there
is only one way to be a good liberal
or a conservative. Or a feminist,
environmentalist,
fundamentalist,
fascist, communist, you name it. If
you’re a Democrat but you oppose
abortion, you’re out. If you’re a
Republican but you support amnesty
for illegal immigrants, you’re also out.
This sentiment felt all the more real
for me the other day — in my case,
being a good person of color — during
Central Student Government elections
here at the University of Michigan.
It was Thursday night, high time
for each party’s campaign. Reggie
the Campus Corgi just dropped out
of the race and students had to look
for a human candidate to support. A
few members of the Japan Student
Association, of which I am part,
wanted the organization’s executive
board to endorse the MomentUM
party for their platform and diverse
representation, just as a few other
cultural organizations have done.
Yet I was opposed. Aligning the
board with a certain party meant
we were endorsing an organization,
which I may have been skeptical
of. Moreover, I wanted to keep JSA
apolitical. A non-negligible number of
members and I joined the organization
to forget about politics and have a
good time with people who share the
same background or an interest in
Japanese culture.
There were certainly valid points
being made by the members who
wanted to endorse a party. Perhaps
we, as an organization that represents
a certain ethnicity on campus, have
an obligation to endorse candidates
and movements that are committed to
expanding representation for people
of color on campus. Yet not everyone
thinks about social justice all day
every day. Just as there is a right to
advocate, there is also a right to stay
silent.
In the end, we compromised and
allowed individual members (not the
entire board) to endorse MomentUM
on JSA’s Facebook page. Yet, I was
left saddened. Thought civil, over the
course of the argument, some accused
me of not caring about people of color
and not using my privilege to help
others. Of course, I care about race and
class and privilege (That’s why I write
these columns in the first place!). I
just choose to display it differently,
and I believe they had just as much a
right to their own opinions.
To assume that every person in a
certain ethnic or cultural category
would
unconditionally
support
a
given slate of causes is fallacious.
The reality is that most Americans’
political
preferences
are
not
uniformly attached to any single party
or ideology. That is why there were
Rockefeller Republicans and Blue Dog
Democrats until each party’s base
began to increasingly apply purity
tests.
The vitriol many of us encounter
regarding political issues sometimes
may be because we are college
students –– the time during our lives
when we are perhaps the most radical
–– but that doesn’t mean it’s a healthy
way to persuade people.
Take this New York Times story
about a man who cut himself off from
all the news in the world after the
election of Donald Trump and lives
a solitary existence on a pig farm in
Ohio. A former corporate executive,
Erik Hagerman deliberately avoids
all form of current events –– what he
calls “The Blockade” –– even going as
far as asking his relatives and friends
to not talk about politics and listening
to white noise at the cafe to avoid
overhearing political conversation.
Some in the comments section of
the article criticized Hagerman for
shirking from his duties as a citizen
to
be
informed
and
benefitting
disproportionately from his white and
class privilege. These are valid points.
Women, people of color, as well as
anyone without the disposable income
to hire a financial adviser in San
Francisco to take care of their assets
cannot enjoy Hagerman’s luxury.
Yet who are we to judge Hagerman?
Most of us read or watch the news but
are too powerless and/or lazy to do
anything about it. There are so many
of us, upon hearing of some great
injustice in this world, who would
rather sit down and watch Netflix
than go protest or run for office. He
is the extreme version of those of us
who may have political views but want
to stay silent and go on with our lives.
Though
Hagerman
may
have
isolated himself from society, he does
contribute something to this world.
He is currently planning to restore
land around an abandoned strip mine
and leave it for future generations to
enjoy. That is his civic contribution,
he claims.
This is not to say there is something
wrong about not doing “enough.” We
are all students, workers, parents,
guardians who in the end need to make
the grade and wait for our paychecks
to arrive. And even among those of us
who are active in the political arena,
there are people who cannot voice
their personal opinion — think about
the news reporters at this very paper,
whose silence is a tool that conveys
neutrality.
As for me, I am just a columnist
for my college newspaper. My piece
is merely an appetizer to the more
important feature article in The
Statement. Yet if even one person reads
this and changes their perspective
on things, I feel like I’ve fulfilled a
sufficient amount of my civic duty.
In the end, what matters is not
whether you’re a good liberal or good
conservative, or even that you make
a statement. Rather, for those of us
that are not the most active, popular
or outspoken, we should do our best
to be a good human being and benefit
others by doing what we do best. For
Hagerman,
it’s
the
environment.
For me, it’s writing. What’s your
contribution?
BY ISHI MORI, COLUMNIST
File Photo/Daily
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) speaks at the GOP Field Office in Livonia on February 16, 2016.