The College Fix

Meet Edward, the unlikely Berkeley College Republican: ‘I am racist against illegal immigrants from Mexico. Oh wait, I’m Mexican myself. Well I dislike the poor. Oh wait, I’m not rich …’

The Berkeley College Republicans have launched a social media campaign, “#ShatteringYourMisconception,” that aims to combat typical Republican stereotypes popular on campus by profiling some of their members.

“In sharing each of their individual stories, we hope to show the UC Berkeley campus that we should not be stereotyped by our political affiliation,” its leaders state. “Our club contains a large diversity of opinions and perspectives. Each and every one of us has a unique story, and each of us have a different reason as to why we are a Republican.”

If their first profile is any indication, they are going to blow the minds of their notoriously liberal peers. Meet Edward:

I am a right wing Conservative so:

I am racist against illegal immigrants from Mexico. Oh wait, I’m Mexican myself. Well I dislike the poor. Oh wait, I’m not rich. Well I must be really old then. Well I am 24 so you can decide whether that is true. I must be severely uneducated. But I’m a student at UC Berkeley. I must be a warmonger. Except I cast my vote for Ron Paul in 2012 who vehemently opposed the war in the Middle East. I must have been an experiment to reincarnate Ronald Reagan into a Mexican person that succeeded. But I don’t even care for Ronald Reagan that much. I think the “War on Drugs” is too costly and he leaned towards excessive gun control which I am against.

So what am I then? Perhaps I am a Mexican Ronald Reagan experiment gone awry. That might be true. But what is truer than that is that I am first and foremost an American. And that is the supreme label that I ascribe to politically. What does subscribing to that label entail? I value the truth, I value life, and I value liberty for all of us, even if those very people who I fight to preserve rights for would deign to call me a Mexican Ronald Reagan experiment.

Slander and libel will always abound about any group. And we as humans are in the habit of only seeing the surface of things, especially when labels are involved—like “Republican,” “Conservative”, or even “Democrat.” But the only label that should define us is the one that allows us to live, live free, and pursue our happiness.

I vote for and I support anyone else who believes these same principals. And if that causes me to be falsely labeled a rich, old, white, racist, uneducated, warmonger, and Mexican Ronald Reagan reincarnation, then so be it.

“I am first and foremost an American… I value the truth, I value life, and I value liberty for all of us” – what beautiful sentiments. Bravo, Edward.

Click here to read the post on Facebook (reprinted with permission).

Click here to learn more about BCR’s new #ShatteringYourMisconception campaign.

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