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.