This past weekend I participated in an event that gave equal rights to the Undead and produced a nominating ticket of Mitt Romney for President and Steven Colbert for Vice President of the United States. I witnessed heated arguments, passionate outbursts and many political jokes.
You guessed right; I was at OWU’s historic Mock Convention.
I participated as a delegate for Missouri and found the experience to be one of the best yet for me at OWU. Through actually acting out the motions of a real convention, I learned first-hand how American political parties operate.
Before Mock Convention, I was interested, but had no idea how party platforms were decided upon. A mere two days later, I feel like I have a firm grasp on how it is done.
I also found myself fascinated with the art of negotiating for support within the ranks of a party itself.
Being a Republican, I found the convention especially interesting because I was able to put myself in the shoes of my party’s delegates during this critical presidential election year and to hear all different arguments regarding my party’s stances. It was interesting to see how diverse peoples’ opinions could be about any given topic. I found it exhilarating to argue my stance on certain issues and to hear the gavel decide the verdict.
What seemed to be most impressive to those around me and to myself was the power of a single signature to make or break a petition. No matter how good an idea was, it could never even be voted on if it did not receive enough signatures of support in the preliminary proposal round.
I was a little skeptical when people said Mock Convention was a pivotal moment in their lives, drawing them to politics, but I now understand exactly what they meant. I’ve always been interested in government, which explains my double majoring in P&G along with journalism, but the convention truly re-affirmed my love of politics. By the end of Friday night, I had made myself a promise that I would one day take part in a National Republican Convention and make a difference in my parties’ platform.
I found the light-hearted moments of nominating Rock Jones for president and proposing a digital war with China a good way to break up the tension and keep the convention not only educational, but fun as well. It truly was a unique experience to be able to interact with the rest of OWU on such a learning-conducive and personal level.
During the convention, I had the privilege of sitting by three OWU alumni who were friends in college and decided to come back for this event together. They are all now practicing law and I had fun interacting with them and hearing about how they used to spend their time at OWU.
They proposed an amendment to rename New Mexico to Better Mexico and we had a lot of fun advocating their cause throughout the convention. They also provided me with some useful insight about the pursuit of political activism after OWU, giving me some good advice for the future.
After experiencing it, I can honestly say the Mock Convention is truly a once in a college-lifetime experience and I hope that everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.