As a cub reporter in Washington, D.C., I was the lowest on the totem pole. I fetched more coffee than bylines, and one of my tasks included training new interns. What I learned from one intern taught me more than any newsprint could.
The intern was an 18-year-old from Anacostia, a D.C. neighborhood that is one of America’s most disadvantaged inner- city communities. She was the first from her family to graduate from high school and would be the first to go on to college.
She told me how her mother cried the day they found out she had been awarded the internship and that her entire church congregation said a prayer for her success the Sunday before she started at our M Street office.
While she grew up less than 3 miles from the nation’s Capitol, the intern had never set foot inside. It was, therefore, my duty to give her a tour. New to the world of politics, I was eager to flash my press credentials and use the congressional subway. I gave the intern a detailed, hour-long seminar on the workings of Congress, mentioning everything from conference committees to filibusters.
After the tour, I asked if she had any questions. “Yes,” she said, “What’s the difference between a Republican and a Democrat?”
I tried to explain to her as objectively as I could that Republicans were for smaller government and individual rights while Democrats prided themselves on helping the disadvantaged through the extension of government programs.
A decade later, however, I realize this distinction is not quite this simple and not quite so true. We need look no further than the last state legislative session, when both parties were all too often united in one mission: to expand the reach of government in our lives. Democrats handed out “Democrats love business” pins at the Colorado Capitol this year, and were joined by many Republicans in supporting a smoking ban and ignoring property rights. The unions made gains while small-business owners suffered.
If only our political parties were like sports teams and we could just believe they’d be better next season. Unfortunately, my party has been in a rough spot for more than a few years. Americans work until May just to pay their tax burden and the government – Democrats and Republicans alike – keeps asking us for more money to fuel its addiction to our wallets.
Some people ask me why I’m still a Republican. Why not just give up, they’ll ask. The reason: I believe in the party’s principles I espoused to that intern years ago and I believe I live them today.
My party is that of the late Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, after whom I named my daughter. Smith, a Republican from Skowhegan, Maine, was the first woman from either major party to launch a legitimate bid at the presidency. Smith fought hard for equal rights, while rejecting the notion that women needed to be given special preferences to succeed.
My party is that of Ward Connerly, a black man born into Southern poverty who transformed his life of disadvantage into one of a successful business career. When the government offered him race- based handouts in the 1990s, he declined, instead choosing to champion Proposition 209, a successful California measure that banned race and gender preferences altogether.
My party is that of Sean Duffy, a former adviser for Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, who courageously sent shockwaves through the GOP by announcing he would lead the campaign for Referendum I, a ballot initiative this fall that seeks to establish legal rights for same- sex partners.
Some things are worth fighting for. I believe in the party that could, and to a lesser extent, in the party I call mine today. Without those in the GOP like Smith, Connerly and Duffy to uphold our ideals of individual rights and the American Dream, I fear we will only continue our downward spiral toward an ethos where we all allow ourselves to become victims. I need only think of that intern from so long ago to remember why this quest remains essential.
sica Peck Corry (Jessica@i2i.org) serves as a policy analyst for the Independence Institute in Golden, where she specializes in civil rights, higher education, and land use policy.
