My freshman year of college I felt forced to vote for a presidential candidate who, according to Ralph Nader, was “the lesser of two evils.” If that wasn’t enough, I also felt trapped in a long distance relationship with the greatest of all evils.
Following that election year I promised myself two things: to never again attempt a long distance relationship and to never allow myself to support a candidate who didn’t have the character or the intelligence to make an adequate mayor, let alone leader of the most powerful nation on earth.
With 15-plus legitimate candidates in the running for the 2008 presidential election, you would think that there would be a handful I could support. You might also think that being one of the few single straight males at Loyola, I would fall for a sane girl who hadn’t just graduated – wrong.
I believe in order to gain national sovereignty, we must pool ours with other countries. We should support supranational organizations such as the United Nations. I believe the Constitution defends the dignity of all human life regardless of race or stage of development. This doesn’t just mean holding traditional pro-life views, but also standing firmly against international human rights violations and supporting the women and families involved in unplanned pregnancies. There’s a justified separation between church and state that deserves respect. I also believe spontaneity is necessary in a relationship, Catholic girls are hot and the country two-step is the key to a woman’s heart.
The number of candidates and interested single girls that reflect my views are zero. None. Zip. Nada. Sen. Sam Brownback, a hard-line, pro-life Republican was the closest candidate. I was not in love with his conservative views of same sex unions but was willing to support him due to his ability to articulate strong arguments for his platform, which generally reflected my own.
Last week not only did my second long distance relationship fall apart, but Brownback threw in the towel. Instead of sinking to creating an account on Match.com or joining today’s trend of “political depression” and becoming apathetic about the candidates, I decided to use ABC’s free presidential calculator to find any candidate that reflected my views. Unfortunately, my closest match was Senator Joseph Biden, a Democrat who managed to attract one percent of the democratic vote (less than Stephen Colbert), and his platform didn’t exactly win me over.
The four presidential front-runners are all staunch pro-choicers. I feel trapped. Where are the pro-life Democrats? There’s not a single pro-life Democratic candidate.
Students of Loyola University, I have a few words of advice: freshmen, I know it’s hard, but come to terms with your long distance relationships. But seriously readers, get out there and find a candidate based on your views. Don’t let name recognition suck you in. Lastly, ask yourself; what stage of development does life begin?
