I’ve always been intrigued by the word “radical”.

In pop culture, it’s the parlance of surfer dudes or teenage mutant ninja turtles.

In math, it’s the root or fundamental part of a number.

In politics, it denotes change or extremism.

And it wasn’t until college that I realized radical politics was all about the fundamental components of an ideology. Like radical feminism or radical islamism. It is both tradition and change. Extreme and fundamental. And that’s what makes politics so freaking confusing.

Take for instance last night.

I went to a screening of a documentary that was not exactly aligned with my political beliefs. And I’m not even a blood thirsty liberal. As someone who’s not a citizen, I think I have a Toquevillean advantage of seeing both sides of politics which means that I’m conservative on some stances and liberal on others.

For instance:

I advocate universal health care but I also believe the morbidly obese should not eat up all US tax dollars. I believe everyone has the right to a great education but I also believe in charter schools. I strongly believe that every woman has the right to choose but I also believe not every woman should have the right to be a parent. (For example, I saw a woman walking down the street with her newborn in one arm and a cigarette in the other. It’s not that I’m advocating eugenics, I’m just saying stupid people should not be allowed to raise children.) I believe in social welfare but I’m also a fan of capitalism. I oppose capital punishment but I also believe that child predators should have their dicks chopped off.

Anyway, that was just a long, drawn out way of saying that I tried to watch this movie with an open albeit still biased mind. Heh.

After the movie, there was a reception with open bar and lots of meat and cheese and one older woman said to me, “I’m so happy to see such young conservatives here!”

I nearly choked on my soppressata.

People kept asking what I thought of the movie and I was reminded of that 30 Rock episode when Tina Fey has to pretend that she liked her friend’s movie so she tries to think of one random compliment. So when people asked what I thought of the movie I’d smile and say, “Oh, I am really digging this open bar.”

Talking about drinking is safe. It’s non partisan.

Actually, as much as I hate to admit it, the movie was actually pretty good. Entertaining even. And while I didn’t believe in what the movie had to say, I think there were parts of it that were pretty–insert Psycho theme song here–insightful.

Anyway, it was interesting to be able to infiltrate the other side. It was kinda like that US Weekly feature “Celebrities: they’re just like us!” Except it was more like “Conservatives: they’re just like us!”

(Well, except that whole I don’t believe in gay marriage or birth control thing)

And that’s the interesting thing about politics in this country. If we just set aside the caricatures we have of both ideologies, stop thinking in extremes and looking at issues as just black and white, and remember what the common causes are, maybe we could really carve out a path to mobilize change.

Wouldn’t that be radical?