More on Republicans | by GlennM
I just visited another Republican friend up in Dallas. She was a Poli-Sci major, but more interested in political history than applied politics. Now she's a middle-school teacher.
She's pro-life, anti-death penalty, for smaller government, for a secure america (she didn't like it when we stopped Star Wars the first time, although she'll admit it might not be the best idea for our current threats), for marriage being between a husband and wife, against welfare. But after seeing the effects of lack of health care in her classroom, she's starting to be a little pro-semi-socialized medicine.
Again, since she doesn't like up exactly with the straight-line-issues (that socialized medicing thing), she doesn't feel like the Republicans are welcoming her. But she's still more likely to swing Republican than Democratic.
It was hard not to argue with her, but just to take it in. She's also tired of having most of the political discussions end in extremes on both sides, I had to push her to get this much out of her.
Since she's issues oriented, I couldn't help but think about whether some of the True Majority stuff could have reached her if it had been shown on TV in Texas. It's certainly not stuff she's likely to look for herself and/or get from her church.
It was also interesting to get her (albeit limited) insight on what it's like to be a middle school teacher in TX right now. With a mostly better administration, she's having a better time teaching gifted kids now than she was teaching non-gifted kids last year in Dallas. What seems to be driving the good teachers out of the classrooms isn't low salaries or lack of benefits. It's too much bureaucracy, especially the fact that the cirriculum is totally laid out for them. How can we teach children to be creative if we don't allow the teachers to use their own creativity in the classroom?