It’s important to play against type. For this reason, during college, I relished showing up for my poly sci classes with unruly hair and a shirt once worn by a gas station attendant. Had I looked like a typical College Republican (I reasoned) my liberal professors might have had an easier time dispatching my (then) libertarian-leaning arguments.
The look may or may not have worked, but at least it was authentic. And authenticity is important. Along those lines, the GOP wants you to know you can be young and cool and cosmopolitan — and still vote Republican. And they’ve enlisted the help of a bespectacled young man. (Why not? After all, YOLO. )
The problem with trying to be cool is that you never want to appear to be trying to be cool. And whether it’s Obama in “dad” jeans, or me using “YOLO” unironically … or this new video (below) put out by the RNC, this is a line easily crossed.
Half of my adult life has been spent trying to stay on the right side of it. As Richard Feynman said, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.”
So here’s the video. Judge for yourself:
Image is everything, and Lucia Graves picks up on the obvious signaling, asking “Can Hipster Glasses Save the GOP?”
My answer to her question is an unequivocal YES!
Not only that, but I think I might have invented this idea as a way for old, white Republicans to stay relevant.
Watch the clip. I was also ahead of the curve on the hipster monocle thing, too.