I am 17 years old and I'm the President of the Young Democrats (The G.O.D. as we call ourselves, or Glorious Order of Democrats) at my highschool. Today I was at the local athletic club watching my brother play tennis and I was reading The Audacity of Hope. Two conservative Enangelical Christians asked me about the book and we had a long conversation about politics, the 08 presidential race, and it was amazing to listen to them and get inside their heads.
Throughout the course of my talk with this couple, we covered issues such as abortion, stem cell research, the Iraq War, Foxnews, Hillary Clinton, compromise, the environment, World War II, and others. We were very respectful of each other and stayed very civil, joking around and just really discussing and listening. First, the guy (I'll call him John) asked me if I was democrat and when I said yes, he paused, and asked, "......why?" and that's how my enounter with the Evangelicals began...
As we went along, the lady (I'll call her Jane) remarked that Barack Obama is someone she wouldn't mind as President because she has heard he has a fairly moderate stance on many issues. John didn't agree, he said he heard Obama asking for $5-$10 from "poor people" and didn't think it was right to ask them for money. Hmmm....They both hated Hillary Clinton and were afraid of the prospect of her as president. It became clear to me very quickly that a Hillary Clinton nomination is the one thing that would fire up the republican base enough to rally their crumbling party. I believe she was labeled the "bitch from hell" by another moderate republican I talked to today. John and Jane told me they have many "religious convictions" that would rally them against Clinton and one of the most interesting parts of our converstaion came when I asked about the 2006 midterm elections.
Jane told me the story of many of her friends who decided to stay home and not vote in this election. She remarked on all of the corruption and how many Evangelicals were upset but still saw the republican party as the "lesser of two evils." She said, however, that they told her they were "flipping through their bibles, and didn't find anything about putting evil in power" so they decided to simply stay home. I found this fascinating. I could not imagine "flipping through a Bible" to find out whether I should or should not vote.
As we continued to discuss the election, I asked John and Jane about who I think is the most qualified candidate, Wes Clark. I wrote a diary about him several weeks ago...
http://www.dailykos.com/...
John (the more militaristic of the two) said he didn't mind Clark, and Jane didn't seem to mind either. They appreciated his experience and his relationships with foreign leaders and knowledge of foreign policy. If the Evangelicals don't mind Clark, I think he is obviously a very electable candidate. I know someone who started a Clark 08 petition that can be found here...
http://www.petitionspot.com/...
John later went on to describe how horrible he thinks partial birth abortion is and talked about "scissors" and "grinding" and that wasn't much fun, as you can imagine. I told him that I didn't think the issue would change much reguardless of who is in office, and I convinced him that there are at least 10 issues of equal or greater importance in the current political landscape.
Both of these Evangelicals watch Foxnews, but both of them agree that Fox is biased and they both feel sometimes like Fox can be more "entertainment with news" as Jane put it, even if she agrees with all the opinion that is injected into the news. She told me that she thinks CNN is a better place to get just "straight news" with no spin. They hate how the media only covers several candidates, but John and Jane are very disappointed with the republican field in 2008 -- they don't like Giuliani, MCcain, or Romney. I would not be surprised if Brownback or Huckabee gains ground once the primary season begins to escalate and more scrutiny is given to the candidates and their positions.
We covered more things that I could continute talking about, but you get the point. These people think so much differently from you and me and its amazing to talk to them and get inside their heads. I guess the reason I am writing this diary is so we can get a glimpse inside the minds of people on the other side, but I also can't emphasize enough how important it is that we DO NOT nominate Hillary Clinton. She is hated. The republican party is fractured and broken right now over issues like The Iraq War, the environment, immigration, and others. The ONLY thing that would cause them to stop moping around and rally is Hillary Clinton. They see her as an almost evil figure and would do everything in their power to defeat her. Obama is acceptable, and Clark might even be able to win over some people with different ideologies. Democrats need to start examining other candidates and we need to do it now. John and Jane have a lot of influence their party would rise from the dead if Hillary Clinton wins the nomination. If you ever want a lot of random people to come up to you and start asking you about your political beliefs, go to a public place, read The Audacity of Hope, you will be surprised.