I’m not talking about the networking that goes on at the Georgetown IHOP on Tuesday mornings. I’m talking about the greatest-ever 80s high school movie, politics and how the current elections have me feeling how some people will never leave high school. The last few months in Williamson County have felt a bit like adult day care.
Politics really brings out the best and worst of us. There are bad boys who were too cool in high school and probably peaked there but can’t get it into their head that most of us have moved on to new things and don’t care about their last touchdown; we want to know if they have the goods to score for us tomorrow. They are still picking on the nerds or bullying the smart kids. Today, I am happy to say the biggest nerds in my real high school are, truthfully, rich rocket scientists with hot wives. Take that, haters.
There were wanna-bes, who always wanted to be part of the cool crowd but their attitudes of entitlement just didn’t fly so they stayed bitter and blamed everyone else for being shallow and not understanding how cool they really were. They resorted to intimidation and spreading rumors about the cheerleaders because they couldn’t do much more than scream impotently at the wind about how unfair it all is. Today, they are the ones who complain in the press that they don’t get enough press. Naturally, the cheerleaders didn’t strive deliberately to achieve “cheerleaderness”, it was just the job that comes with being positive and supportive without really getting dirty. People like them because they are upbeat and helpful and they believe in “team.” In politics, we call those people “volunteers” who give up their weekends for a greater cause.
There were good kids who flew under the radar. They didn’t drink or run around. They had principles, kept their heads down and worked hard for good grades because they realized high school wasn’t the final solution to the universe—could see and plan for the future and had a lot of good ideas about how to live in it. Those are the people who sign up for office and brace themselves for the slings and arrows aimed at the target they willingly accept on their backs.
Let’s not forget the outliers; the ones who smoked during lunch every day and dressed weird so they could all be different together. That really idiotic group that wrote on the walls, clogged the toilets and generally caused mayhem because they hated everyone not like them. Today, these are the people the ATF keeps an eye on, or the ones who post hit-piece websites for petty revenge.
It’s really a shame that we can’t all work together inside our own school because there’s a big game in just a few weeks and we’re going up against our biggest rivals. Today we call them Democrats. So how about we all just take our seats—together—and act like a team?
