When I was in high school, the President was impeached. Many of you have probably had similar experiences.
This came amidst night after night of the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw and my parents. Each night I would hear the Republicans beat up on Clinton, followed by my parents beating up on Clinton and me wondering what was so bad about the guy. Then I got up in the morning for AP Government (which I took in 10th grade thanks to a special quirk of the program I attended in high school).
My friends at the time were (and still are) more political than I am. So for all the Clinton-bashing I got at home, I sat among 15-year-olds who bashed Republicans at school. Long story short, I felt bad for the guy. How could anybody (whether you are talking about Clinton or his detractors) be as bad as they were saying? Clinton was the first president I really grew up with -- I have no memories of Reagan and only remember the 1988 election and Bush's inauguration in '89. So while most people follow the political viewpoints of their parents, I heard so much of my folks' opinion that I bounced in the other direction out of sympathy.
This loosely relates to what was going to be the original topic of this post: my much-maligned and all-too-frequent statement that "I don't care about the issues." I wish those months of my adolescence (not to mention my political ideology) hadn't been soured by the acrimony I saw on TV, at school and in my living room. Ever since then, save for the pause after Sept. 11, it's been nothing but screeching, howling and fingerpointing. I'm sick of it. It's why I've never ever had any desire for the Republican, Democrat, liberal or conservative labels. I initially thought Obama was finally a Democrat who was going to put America before the Democratic party; now, I'm not so convinced. More on "postpartisanship" and my always-changing views on Barack Obama some other time.
What started back in 10th grade and remains today is this: the problems I care about are more cultural, more psychological, more sociological than political. Policies, after all, come and go. We have to live in this culture every day.
