A buddy of mine, who observed that I had grow to be less partisan (within the Republican aspect) and perhaps even a bit much more liberal, speculated that probably I had transformed as a result of hanging all around liberal faculty colleagues. I suspect that the fiasco of the Bush Administration might have been more relevant- but at any rate, the exchange caused me to think about how my ten years as a teacher, and my years like a practitioner before then,
Office 2010 Professional Plus Key, might have affected my politics.
I’m not sure my job affects how I view issues- but I do think it affects how I view individual personalities. For example, some of my nonlawyer acquaintances view President Obama as strange and exotic- inspriring to those that liked him, scary to the people who didn’t.
But partially (I think) because of his background as a lawyer and law professor, Obama seemed to me far more familiar and significantly less exotic than most of his competitors. I felt like I knew Obama after the first Democratic debate I saw: Mr. Generic Democratic Lawyer/Law Professor,
Cheap Office 2007, a guy who could easily work three or four doors down from me,
Office Standard, a man with conventionally liberal views who gets along by going along and rarely says anything surprising about issues.
By contrast, Senator McCain, the former Navy pilot with a penchant for bold, unexpected (and sometimes stupid) decisions, struck me as the exotic, alien candidate. There is nothing in my life that has prepared me to understand John McCain, or to predict what would happen in a McCain Administration.
Does this mean I was a lot more likely to vote for Obama than I would have before entering teaching? Perhaps not- familiarity breeds contempt,
Office 2010 Pro, and I felt like I understood Obama’s weaknesses as will as his strengths. But it does mean that for me personally,
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010, he inspires much more apathy, and significantly less fear or inspiration, than some other politicians.