Young And Republican

ST PAUL -- One of the first speakers at last night's RNC event was a 20-year-old young woman named Ashley Gunn. Gunn began her speech by trying to disprove the old Socratic saying that "Children are Tyrants." She told the crowd that when she was 12 years old she went to Africa on a mission trip, and the poverty she saw astounded her.

"Why them, and not me," she remembers thinking. She decided to start a non-profit called Students Aiding Indigent Families (SAIF), to prove that even young people are willing to make a difference. This part of the story drew a polite applause from the audience. When she said "In [making this group] we empower the urban poor to become homeowners without the aid of government spending," however, the crowd went wild.

Being under the age of 40, Gunn was a minority in the Xcel Energy Center tonight (in terms of age, not in terms of politics), but she was not the only one. I talked to a number of young Republicans to find out what it's like to be on the other side of the youth movement. When most people think about young voters, they think about Barack Obama supporters, and this is something that many young Republicans take issue with.

While George Bush's image flashed across the enormous center screen to address the audience (looking a lot like Big Brother I might add), I made the rounds downstairs. On the first floor of the Convention center, as people flocked around hair magnate Paul Mitchell or various impossible-for-me-to-identify republican politicos, I sought out the young and the nameless.

"If I leave my home town and am approached about politics, people assume I'm an Obama zealot," John Shad, 20, from Atlanta, Georgia, told me. "A lot of young people are so naive, so easily fooled by smooth talking and trumped up speeches. I don't fall for that shit. I like cold hard facts, and cold hard experience."

Shad was not the only young person I talked with here who did not want to associate with other young people.

"A lot of people my age don't have a grasp on what's going on in the world," said a 22 year-old seating attendant who wished to remain nameless (attendants were not supposed to talk politics to guests). "It might be appealing to have the government try and bail out poor people, but that's not the way the government works. It might be appealing to get out of Iraq, but that's not the way war works. It might be appealing to have the government fix schools, but that's not the way education works. McCain is talking in practical terms, and it's time young people got more practical."

Comments

[clr2]

Thanks for covering this story, for the most part, objectively. Young people, like any other group in society. don't vote as a unit. They are all individual and as such have different opinions. It was nice to see that you gave these young people a voice on this site. I know the opinions of these young republicans will be shot down by the huffingtonpost regulars; but it sounds like these youngins can take it.

[SShaw490]

Likes cold hard facts and cold hard experience, eh? Well, she's at the wrong convention, then. Palin has no cold hard experience and McCain can't remember andy cold hard facts.

[anastasiabeaverhousen]

20 years of conservative talk radio gives us delusional young people like this poor young woman. They actually believe that up is down and war is peace.

[egal]

So...

practicality means accepting that our government is incompetent and doesn't care about anything that can make this nation better and give us more power, money, influence, equality, etc.,

and a politician having war experience 5000 years ago (I kid) and having once upon a time (like, last year-ish) stated facts and made political decisions based on his core values is more important than that same politician becoming someone who folds to the GOP rather than standing on those values and consistently being someone who makes votes that have sent our nation into a downward spiral.

How dare all those young people look past speeches and slogans and buses, and look INTO the actual political judgment, history, intentions, and fidelity to see that Obama is the better candidate than a man who can't even stand firm on his own values and who continues to support fatal policies!

No wonder the "young" GOPers have such disdain for Obama supporters--it's easier to refuse to look at reality in adhering to their own party prejudices than it is to accept that Obama has been right in every way McCain has been wrong, that Obama has supported those who serve this nation in ways McCain can only lipservice, and that Obama's fiscal policies and other plans hit all the right points in doing what this nation needs while McCain's rehash failed policies and insist on supporting soundbytes that have been dismissed by the experts.

[stevea66]

Young people need to get more 'practical?' C'mon. Young people are, in large numbers...­that's why they're supporting Barack Obama. Seriously. Young people have a good gut. Their bull**** meter is finely tuned. They see where the country has gone for the past 8 years and are taking control as best they can. There is no doubt that some young folk need to get practical, get the facts. Those who back McCain are ill-informed and need to stop letting their conservative relatives steer them in the wrong direction.