Just the other night some friends and I were having a nice, friendly political discussion. That is a lie. It was honestly quite harsh until we were finally able to get past the socially accepted labels of liberal and conservative and talk about real issues.

Once we did get away from labels and down to issues, we realized that we all had some very similar ideas. The discussion went very well and we all left having been enlightened, so to speak.

Throughout history, I would have been called a liberal, a nationalist, a capitalist, a communist, a socialist, a Democrat, a Federalist, an Independent, a maverick, a hyper-spiritualist, a heretic, a reformer, a revolutionist, an enemy of the people, a guerilla, an anti-nationalist, a defender of the peace, a warmonger, a centrist, a moderate, a radical, a traditionalist and who knows what else. For some reason, at the moment, I am called a right-winged, religious, conservative, Republican.

I cannot see how I am called right-winged – I have never sat in Congress. I only fit one dictionary definition of “religious” and that is “one who has a belief and reverence for a deity.” All that means is that I believe in God, or for that matter, any god. I would say the majority of the world’s population believes in some sort of god. (I am not sure why people want to criticize anyone for that in politics anyway). And I have no idea what I am supposedly trying to conserve. If you ask me, I am extremely liberal in the way I want welfare reform, tax reform, school-funding reform, justice system reform, election/appointment reform, education reform and the list goes on. I want to change a lot of stuff.

I think I am more liberal than any Congressman. Honestly, even those who sit on the far left in Congress are just as conservative (by definition) as the far right. They want things the way they want them and once things are that way they want them to stay that way. Both parties are like that.

When I look up the word Republican, I see that I do not fit that label either. I do not belong to the Republican Party, and if you think you belong to a party, let me see your membership dues and your official party membership card. I know in some states voters register with one party or another to allow them to vote in the primaries, and if you donate enough money to either party they will label you a lifetime party member or something like that. But my point here is that in the United States, as opposed to other countries throughout history, political parties are not made up of card-carrying members. In short, we do not have party membership in the traditional sense. Believe it or not, party membership in the United States is very loose and ambiguous. Since I am definitively not a river in Kansas, I really find it difficult to call myself a Republican.

You might argue I am a Republican because of my voting record. But I would ask, “What voting record?” I voted once. And since those of us on college campuses have only been able to vote in a few elections (maybe one presidential election), I think the idea of being labeled according to precedent is quite preposterous. You may identify with your parent’s voting habits (or ardently disagree with them), but honestly, I am not sure either of those, by default, makes you a Democrat or a Republican.

In the end, etymologically speaking at least, I am liberal, and that is about it. And I think that is true of most college students. I cannot imagine that anyone is happy with our current political situation. I would bet every one of us wants something changed, and that makes all of us liberal.

Keep in mind that I am not here dealing with the ideologies known as liberalism and conservatism. Those are other matters. My point is that all of these political terms we use are just labels that have little if any definite meaning. Throughout history, depending on the time period and the country, I honestly would have been labeled all of those things I listed above. Labels change.

Personally, how I am labeled means little to me, but when you apply a label to a person or group, you run the risk of making yourself appear intolerant. Labels are far too often used to point out differences rather than similarities. I hope you can see me (and everyone else) as simply American, wanting the best for our country. We ought to do what our current predecessors are either too proud or inept to do and lay aside all this name-calling and divisive, party nonsense and just be American. Maybe I am wrong, but I think that is what college students really want. After all, this is the United States, or at least it’s supposed to be.

Matt Brumit is a junior Humanities major. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].