The Politically Confused

Ever know someone who is an outspoken Republican, Democrat, Liberal, or Conservative, and yet, through their everyday words and actions, they completely go against what they supposedly support? It'd be like me claiming that my favorite baseball players are Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, and Hideki Matsui, yet, the team I root for is the Boston Red Sox.

I don't know many people like this, because most the people I talk to are pretty well set in the middle of the political spectrum, that or they are rather consistent with their outspoken views and their everyday words and actions. There is one person I know, however, that makes me scratch my head. He claims to be a strong supporter of the Democratic party, yet he seems to disagree with just about everything the majority of the Democratic party says or stands for. In most cases, it has been Democrats who've attempted to ban smoking in public places and in just about all cases, it has been Democrats who've favored some kind of gun control. This friend of mine is a big supporter of two major companies: 1) the tobacco industry and 2) national rifle association. For the most part, Democrats have been more lenient and tolerant to immigrants (one definition of liberal is that of being more tolerant). My friend will start his speech with "Now, don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Spanish people, but..." and that's when his little rant begins. He may have a point here and there that I can understand, but he'll go so far as to complain about how there are language options of English and Spanish at the Wal-Mart self-service check in line. If I were to travel out of country, to France for example, I would be extremely grateful if there was an English option at public places I went to, like the French's version of Wal-Mart, for example. Even if I partially understood the French language, I'd still be thankful for this language option, because regardless of how well I know French, "English" will always be my native language. I put quotes around "English" for the simple fact that there are different forms of this language and it cracks me up when I hear people ranting about it. There's actual English (England), American English, Australian English, etc. Why we don't just call it American and Australian, I have no idea. The truth is, I don't even know where this kid stands on things like abortion, capital punishment, minority rights (who can speak "English"), women's rights, etc. The only issue I know about where he is not conservative is that of religion. He's not religious. He doesn't believe in any religion, but at the same time, feels people have the right to believe what they want. But, the only two issues I hear the kid talk about are that of smoking and guns. I even saw that he's a subscriber to the magazine The American Rifler. I didn't even know there was such a magazine until I saw that the other day. I remember talking to a friend of mine about him and she said something along the lines of, "Wow, you have a lot of Republican friends." I laughed and said, "Yeah, and the funny thing is, he claims to be a Democrat, which I don't get." That was probably a month or so ago and still, to this day, I don't understand the kid.