I'm not studying law to become a disability lawyer that has cheap advertisements on the local news channels. I did it exclusively, to go into a career in politics. (I know the thought of me with any sort of power beyond being able to choose what I eat for lunch and what I watch on tv is terrifying to some people) However, I've always been interested in working as a voice for the people. I remember a few years back, I got to eat lunch with a local senator (Eliot Shapleigh), and I felt like such a nosy little brat afterward for asking him all manner of questions. "Senator, I'd like to know, how could you possibly endorse something like the Patriot Act? Playing on post 9/11 paranoia to increase federal power etc. etc. rambling etc."
The response I got made me angrier than I've ever been in my entire life:
"Sometimes we have to give up privacy and freedoms for security."
I fucking spit my macaroni out.
"Senator, have you ever heard of the quote: Those who give up liberty for security deserve neither?
"It's a matter that you won't understand until you're older"
From that day forth, I vowed that I'd do whatever it took to make sure asshats like that aren't allowed to run this country.
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But yeah, I've always kinda been a geek for government and politics. It's kinda been something that's always interested me, even when I swore that I'd end up as a theoretical physicist or aeronautical engineer.
The rush that I'd get out of policy debate was just amazing. I was a fucking debating machine, I even managed to make it to state one year. The topic was "Should the United States government increase its investment in transportation infrastructure". My affirmative case was water tight. Granted, it was fallacious as fuck, but what argument that tries to get the masses to agree isn't?