By Steven Postolka
There are a lot of stereotypes that are attached to American political parties, politicians, and politics in general. Like many biases, these political stereotypes may be partially valid criticisms or may be based off of solid opinions.

But frankly, they should make us all a little nervous. I know it’s easy to sit here and remind everyone that stereotypes are bad. Everyone probably agrees. But when I look around, I feel that stereotypes and misperceptions are playing too big a role in our politics today.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that they’re one reason why Republicans lost the last election. It’s not the only reason, to be sure. Republicans made some mistakes in the previous eight years, and many of their policies were controversial. But I don’t think it was the policies alone that drove voters on Election Day–it was their perceptions and ideas of Republicans.
Take, for example, the video and website “I’m Voting Republican,” subtitled: “You’ll Get What You Deserve.” This short video featured a variety of actors portraying Americans who were blissfully content with all of the terrible things Republicans were doing.

“I’m voting Republican,” says a public safety officer, “because sometimes the Constitution is just one big, inconvenient headache.”

“I’m voting Republican,” says a doctor, “because I don’t really want a cure for AIDS or breast cancer. They’re just gays and women.”

“We’re voting Republican,” says an African American couple, “because we like a conservative majority on the Supreme Court. We really like knowing that even if we’re separate, we’ll still be called equal.”

If your blood isn’t already boiling, you can check out the rest of the video online. But here’s a few ideas I’d like to throw back at these people:

“I’m voting Democrat because I want to see billions of dollars in federal debt passed on to my children. They won’t need a government by then. Plus, if we need more money, we can just keep borrowing it from China.”

“I’m voting Democrat because I want a liberal majority on the Supreme Court. Americans are homophobic and won’t give homosexual couples their right to marry through ballot initiatives. They need a court to force them to change.”

Are these criticisms unfair? Absolutely! They’re stereotypes! They’re damaging political dialogue in America. And while I feel that they’ve hurt Republicans more than Democrats in recent years, they can work both ways.

The reason why Republicans are being hurt more is, in my opinion, because they aren’t responding well enough to the criticisms. I feel that this affects people our age more than others because many of the entertainers we listen to, who make use of these stereotypes for comedy or art, are often not big fans of Republicans.

And while I’m not going to deny Colbert his right to parody conservative pundits or Letterman his right to crack a few jokes, I do urge you to read between the lines.

Politics is an imperfect game. And it’s far more complicated than can be captured by a stereotype or a TV commercial. It’s not black and white, much as we’d like to think it is. (Dec. 3)

Want to give me feedback about my opinions? Check out my blog and leave me a comment: The Bystander Blog