Conservative Wanted for Friendly Conversation, Possibly Coffee

You know, I miss Republicans.

As Rich wrote about, Frank Luntz came to speak last week on campus. One of the things he exhorted us, as college students, to do was to seek out people who have different opinions than us. And he, several times, pointed out that we, as an audience, weren't representative of America.

I know this. And, sometimes, it hurts.

For instance, the typical political conversation in Madison with a typical Madisonian goes something like this:

Person A says something liberal. Person B agrees and something more liberal. Person A nods vigorously and says something even more liberal. One might even say radical. Person B makes wild conspiracy theory. Person A & Person B walk off arm in arm to grab a cool Wisconsin brew.

Ok, so this is slightly exaggerated. But sometimes my experience in the city feels like that. The first couple years I loved it. I grew up in a pretty Republican area (we elected Democrats occasionally, but they were usually pretty conservative Democrats). A lot of my friends from high school were (and still are) Republicans. So being let loose in a liberal town was fantastic.... at first.

But I miss the conversations I used to have with very intelligent, engaged conservatives who had respect for me, and for whom I had respect. There's really something to having your ideas challenged and your beliefs interrogated in a way that is vigorous, but still respectful.