I used to call myself a Republican. It was a short phase, lasting from September 2001 until early 2007. Back in the 2000 presidential vote I wanted Al Gore to win because I was 11 years old and he looked smarter in the Saturday Night Live debates. But when he lost, I didn't mind. What happened in Florida didn't seem like all that big of a deal - that is, until September 11.
Let me explain: I was born in Brooklyn, and at the age of 5 I moved to Connecticut - still only an hour or so away from Manhattan. I remember coming out of the Brooklyn Battery tunnel and craning my neck to find the tops of the buildings I thought were called the World "Trait" Centers. God knows what "trait" meant, but I didn't know much of anything then.
In school on September 11, our principal made a fairly innocuous announcement: two planes, she said, had collided with the towers. I thought she meant "plane," not "jetliner." Coincidental, I thought, but nevertheless unimportant.
Later in the hallway, when a classmate told me that it was actually two 767s, I blew it off. He was nuts; that was crazy. I may have been na've at 12, and I knew that plenty went on without my understanding, but for the love of God, this was New York City - the only city, as far as I was concerned. I ran home from school that day. Everybody was acting weird, something was clearly up, and I was tired of being left in the dark. I burst into my house, expecting my mother to reassure me, to tell me that everything was alright. But it didn't go like that. The news, at first, said that 30,000 to 50,000 people may be dead. That day we eat dinner in silence. What was there to say?
George W. Bush grew into the man we needed at that time. Of course, he wasn't good enough to remain as good as he was after that day. He was, however, a good man, a nice man. I didn't think he was evil, and I didn't think he realized what he was getting himself into when he accepted the Republican nomination.
After that day, I had little choice but to let President Bush's sorrowful and later vengeful words wash over me. I don't regret it. I, like most of America, supported the beginning of the Iraq war and, despite the occasional doubts, I still feel the same.
My faith in the execution of the war itself, however, has not been as strong. Mistakes were made; the War on Terror is a war for which we have no precedent.
But Republicans didn't lose me on the war; they lost me when they became Democrats. When we declared our independence all those years ago, I didn't think they meant that governments had the right to liberty; in fact, I know they didn't. The Declaration of Independence was not a declaration of our new country's independence; it was a declaration of each individual's independence.
I'd like to believe that, and I'd like to believe that the people we have elected value it as well. Unfortunately, it is obvious that they don't, whether it be a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, or yet another tax to fund yet another federal program, our government no longer concerns itself with what our founding fathers believed.
I think this is bad. I now call myself a conservative-libertarian, and not because I like libertarians. They're too radical and impractical for my taste. But given the choice between one party who champions big government and another party that champions gigantic government, I'll take the crazy radicals any day.
Charlie Szold is a freshman in School of Public Affairs and a conservative columnist for The Eagle.
