To the disbelief of many of my peers, the title of this post is actually quite accurate. I don't believe I am old (unless we're talking about in college years, then yes, age twenty-one makes me feel pretty old sometimes), and I definitely do not discriminate against anyone because of their race, sexual orientation, or gender. In other words: I am not racist, I am not sexist, and I am not homophobic. However, I am a registered Republican, which many people have begun to use as a synonymous term to those I just mentioned. Now, I'm pretty sure that everyone learns at a young age that opinions shouldn't be made about entire groups of people based on an experience with a few people in that group. Unfortunately, though, that is not the case. I am constantly hearing negative things about the political party I have chosen to identify with: for example, how horrible and mean Republicans are, how much they hate minorities, how much they don't care about people struggling within our country - to name a few. Wait, what?
Last time I checked, I'm not too horrible or even really that mean. I don't hate anyone based on their race, or anyone at all for that matter. I'm not an old white man. I don't believe political opinions have to directly correlate with religious opinions. I believe that mass incarceration is a growing problem in the United States. I am all for womens' rights. Free the nipple, girls. Use the bathroom you want to use. If you don't want to have that baby, then don't. I'm not here to infringe upon anyone's personal liberties.
I'm a Republican, and I don't fit any of your negative stereotypes. And I'm not the only one.
Of course, I have opinions that differ from those who have chosen to be registered Democrats. However, I do not believe this gives me the right to badmouth every single person who identifies as one. I understand that people feel the need to openly talk about the political figures that are running for the various government positions in our country - it's a huge topic of discussion. But, there is a difference between talking about celebrity figures and ordinary everyday people - these politicians are putting themselves out there and agreeing to make their lives public in order to run for office. Regular people are not. People like Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have accepted that by running for President, there will be people that openly say horrible things about them just because they exist - and (despite how rude and demeaning it is) they are expecting people to talk about them this way.
But, as aforementioned, what is true of the parts is not always true of the whole. This is not only true of political parties, but for all types of groups that people identify with. It is extremely ignorant to believe that just because one person feels a certain way that everyone else must feel the same. Next time you think about openly badmouthing an entire group of people, think again.
