JP in the house

As I recently explained, I am intrigued by politics. For this reason alone, I have gotten involved in the Colorado Political Scene. I was involved with the Boulder County Democrats during election season last fall volunteering to count ballots and votes and to canvas. (Its really fun to canvas btw…NOT). I believe for anyone and everyone interested in politics, you must find at least one issue that you’re passionate about.

If you stand for nothing, then you’ll fall for everything.

There are in the end of the day a hell of a lot of issues that I stand for. I am pro-choice, I am pro women’s rights. I am pro gay marriage, pro abortion, pro pretty much every social issue that democrats would deem worthy of time and resources from the government. I am also pro-Israel.

Let me go into this a second. It really pisses me off when people are like how can you be so liberal and pro-Israel. For some reason, this is a really bad stigma to being liberal, democratic, and pro-Israel. People regularly think that Conservatives, or Republicans would first take on this issue and make it important in their hearts. I can see how some can claim this putting Israel in the category of national defense and international diplomacy, which in the past has often been associated with war and thus more of a Republican hot button. YET, on the other side, Israel is an extremely liberal country. Way more in fact, than the US and 100 x more liberal than any middle eastern country. I know I’ve already ranted about this, but you would be amazed how many ignorant people there are out there. At the same time I am not saying that I am know-it-all. If anything, I am thirsty for this information so I make it a point to read up about it as much as possible and to actively make an effort by being an activist.

I think more people would be involved in politics if they saw how easy it is to become involved. You can chose how involved you are, what issues you care about, and what direction you would like to do. It is so cool to be able to lobby and to MEET congressman, senators, and their aids/assistants. They are the people that are making big, HUGE, influential decisions in our lives and they want us to be involved. The time is now.

Which brings me to the title of this post, JP in the house. JP stands for Jared Polis, and he is Boulder’s newly elected congressman in DC. He is very pro-education, and very knowledgeable, which is why we are bringing him to campus, my group, the Israel Public Affairs Committee, and the College Democrats, to discuss Iran.

Damn, democracy feels good.