"I will have you know I have faith that the American people are smarter than that, I believe that the American people will elect the person who is best for the job, and maybe America needs a little bit of socialism, what is so wrong with helping people?" Sarah is used to having to defend her left wing beliefs but her friends do think like her, just not as strongly, and not as far left.
"There is nothing wrong with helping people, but the way to do that is not to give them a blank check, because then they learn nothing. The government can put in programs to ensure that people can learn to help themselves, rather than relying on others to provide for them. Helping people help themselves is more important than just continuously handing them more money and more money." Scott knows that he is more right wing than his friends but is still a young student, and still believes that America can change.
"How about instead of flapping our gums all the time, we make a bet. If Sarah really believes that her um candidate can win then I am sure she won't mind putting a little bit of money where her mouth is." Marc suggests, laughing because he knows that Sarah will not back down from a challenge.
"Deal, but we all have to bet. How about the 3 losers have to treat the winner to a nice meal to whatever restaurant they choose, no price limit?" Sarah knows that she will probably lose but it is okay because she believes in Schwartz. Sarah refuses to back down because she believes in her candidate and what he believes in. Whether or not she loses is not what matters in this case, what matters is that her candidate is important to this election.
The other three friends quickly agree, looking at each other thinking that Sarah is a naive girl who will be very sorry at the end of the election. They all know that there can only be one winner, but they all feel confident that it will not be Sarah.
The four friends look at each other and seal their bet with a sip of coffee before settling into different discussions.
The Republicans.
Politics are often divided into two camps so to speak, the left and right wing. This is important because it is the basis for most modern democracies, they may call the left and right wing different things, but at their core they tend to be the same thing, and they are some of the most heated debates in any democracy. These two camps believe fundamentally different things and that is why the debates tend to be so heated.
America is no different and so on the right you have the Republicans.
Republicans believe in small government and in letting the people and businesses live without gross interference by the government. This is often coupled with a desperate desire to create laws based on morality as seen in the bible, but not always. There are some Republicans who don't believe in legislating for religious purposes, although they tend to make a smaller splash than those who do.
Two such republicans are Scott and Megan. Both college students who are Political Science majors along with their two best friends, and the four of them would often be found debating late into the night.
Megan might be more left wing than Scott but is still right wing. She believes in helping the most vulnerable but that too many people abuse the system and therefore there should be an entire overhaul of the system so that the vulnerable would be taken care of, but that the system would not be abused.
Scott believes in a small government. He does not believe that the job of the government is to baby the citizens, but rather ensure that there is a military, that there are police and fire departments, that there are roads and that there are schools and hospitals. He does not believe that the government should intervene in most matters of the home (although he of course does not support child abuse).
Both republicans often have to put up with abuse from their friends who are democrats for being "horrible human beings" because they do not believe that the answer to everything is more taxes or more spending. Sometimes the answer is to allow the situation to resolve itself.
Other Republicans believe that while there should be small government, there should be moral issues that are legislated for or against. One example would be abortions. The party that believes in small government also believes that abortion should be illegal because of religion. This hypocrisy does not sit well either Megan or Scott but both know that they have no choice, they cannot support democrats when the democrats are so left wing compared to them.
This is a problem that many republicans face every day, as the direction of the party seems to shift almost daily, depending on who is popular that week.
The Democrats.
The left wing in America is called the Democratic Party, but they are extremely divided in terms of how far left they swing.
The democrats varies greatly in terms of what they believe, and there are no two people who have these different beliefs then Marc and Sarah.
Both are blue and proud of it, both are democrats and both are idealists, although Marc is more of a realist then she is.
They both believe that the role of the government is to take care of its citizens, and that the government has to intervene often because it is supposed to represent the people. This is about all that they can agree on.
Marc believes that politics is a dirty game and the only way to win is to follow to rules of the game, no matter how corrupt they may be. He believes that you have to play within the boundaries and that means that the politicians have to sometimes make promises they can't keep, in order to hopefully get something better later on. He believes that sometimes you can't come out and say we will raise taxes even if that is what needs to be done. He is a strong believer in the ends justifying the means. He is okay with a politician lying if it means that the end goal is reached.
Sarah thinks Marc could not be more wrong. She believes that if the system is corrupt it is the politicians duty, and the duty of the citizens to change the system. She believes that if you do not keep your promises to the citizens that you do not deserve to continue representing the people. She believes if you lie you should be fired. Now she may be an idealist but she is not stupid. She realizes that no system is perfect and she understands politicians will lie. But if the citizens are not willing to stand up and say it is not okay, then what exactly do people expect to change? People should not whine and moan about how terrible the system is, unless they are willing to do something to fix it.
The political spectrum is large and varied just like the people who fall within it, and no two people can be on the same side of the spectrum and have such different beliefs and these two friends.
The democrats are so varied but Marc knows that Sarah will always have his back, even if she will chew him out after for being immoral. And Sarah knows that Marc will help her whenever she needs it, even if he will make fun of her for being so naive.
The democratic party is extremely divided and this leads to some very interesting conventions,but also a lot of danger in terms of getting the votes needed to getting things passed.
Finding common ground with the democratic party is more difficult than it should be at times.
The First Meeting.
Megan thought about the first time she met her best friends while she was getting ready for work. The four of them are so different ideologically speaking, and that really should make them not work. But they do. Even their first meeting had them fighting with each other, but it was a spirited debate, and they continue to love those debates and they always respect each other while debating. Even though a lot of their time is spent debating various aspects of politics, they truly enjoy each others company.
She still remembers the first time she found out that Marc was a democrat. Sarah was no shock, she practically oozes socialism, but Marc was more of a surprise. He seemed must more middle with a little bit of a step to the right but no he is a democrat. Megan thinks that one of the reasons she finds it so hard to believe that Marc is a democrat is because how willing he is to play the game, but then when looking at Bunker that begins to make more sense, given that