In this installment of In Our Midst, The Tufts Daily profiles the president of the Tufts Democrats. Next Wednesday's In Our Midst will feature the president of the Tufts Republicans, Nicholas Boyd.<$>
In this installment of In Our Midst, The Tufts Daily profiles the president of the Tufts Democrats. Next Wednesday's In Our Midst will feature the president of the Tufts Republicans, Nicholas Boyd.
Senior Jonathan Parnes' passion for politics may not come as a surprise if you take into account his roots. "I live in Washington D.C., in the city, not in Maryland or Virginia," Parnes said. "I always tell people there's something in the water there."
Living in the nation's capital has made it near-impossible for Parnes, who is President of the Tufts Democrats, to ignore politics. "The thing is, in D.C., you have so much access and everybody you know is involved, so it's hard to not follow politics," Parnes said.
Politics was not only "in the water" for Parnes, it was also in his blood. "My grandparents were really involved in politics in New York City," Parnes said. "My grandmother actually ran for Congress in the 1940s or '50s on the third-party ticket."
"My grandmother was just the kind of person, if she was in a cab or if she saw a musician on the street, she would walk up to them and ask if they were a member of the union and give them a union card," Parnes added. His grandfather was also politically active and served as a judge in an elected position.
Though Parnes acknowledges that "[politics] has always been there," he cites one tragic day in particular as the beginning of his personal involvement with politics. "In high school, there were two kids who were coming home from a basketball game, and they were killed in a drive-by shooting by their house," Parnes said. "So that inspired me to get involved with lobbying for gun control."
It was through his gun control lobbying that Parnes first met John Kerry. Four years later, Parnes found himself working with Kerry's presidential campaign.
"I worked at the Democratic National Convention and for the Kerry campaign this summer," Parnes said. "I came up to Boston and I worked in the communications war room. Every day I'd work from seven in the morning to six at night."
Parnes' political involvement did not end with the 80-degree weather, however. "I love politics, but it's kind of taking over my life right now," said Parnes, who, in addition to his role as President of the Tufts Democrats, is also the Legislative Director of the College Democrats of Massachusetts. "Let's just say I'm not getting my work done this year," he added.
In between watching the Red Sox win the World Series, Parnes dialed into the College Democrats conference call every night last week. "[The conference call] is a way of organizing events and connecting to the other chapters," Parnes said. "We don't want to exist in a bubble."
Parnes also spent last week preparing to participate in the mock presidential debate that took place in Cabot Auditorium last Tuesday. "It went really well - I prepared a lot by reading up on all the issues to make sure I knew all the nuances of them," Parnes said. "I didn't want to just repeat the numbers that were given in the [real presidential] debates - I tried more to get the points out that would make sense for college students."
Parnes not only participates in politics, but he teaches it as well. "This year, I'm teaching a class on presidential elections for the Explorations Seminar," Parnes said. "I took an Explorations class freshman year and that's how I got involved with the Dems partly: My Explorations leaders worked for the Dems."
Since his experience with Explorations was so positive, Parnes decided to reach out to incoming freshmen in the same way. "I'm still friends with most of the people that were in my group, so I just wanted to do the same thing for someone else," Parnes said.
Though it may seem like he has a lot on his plate, Parnes finds his activities worthwhile. "Some people ask me, 'Why do you care?' I just really care about the issues," Parnes said. "It's not about winning the game."
Though Parnes doesn't see the election as a game to be won, he does make bets in jest around it. "[The Tufts Dems] raised about $1,100 for Kerry in one night. I said if we raised $2,000, I'd get a Mohawk," Parnes said. Though his hair remained intact after the first bet, Parnes made another promise in his pre-election interview - "If [the Democrats] win the election, I'll give myself a fro-hawk."
Parnes' interests are not limited solely to American politics, however. An International Relations major, Parnes is also interested in the issues from abroad. "What got me really interested in international relations were my trips in high school to Kenya, Nigeria and Cuba through Experimental International Learning (EIL)," Parnes said. "It was for community service and cultural immersion. We lived with a family for two weeks in a hut - no running water, no electricity."
In his junior year at Tufts, Parnes continued his international studies in a program abroad in Italy. Though he is grateful for his experiences abroad and his foreign language courses on campus, Parnes still finds his primary passion to be domestic issues.
In the future, Parnes would definitely like to turn his passion for American politics into a full-time career, but you may not see his name on a campaign button any time soon. "I've thought about it, but you have to be the right person at the right place at the right time to run for office," Parnes said.
Now, in a politically crucial moment in history, however, Parnes has decided to focus on activities that support the Democratic Party, leaving little time for anything else.
When asked if his life is as hectic in non-election years, Parnes said, "No, but I also wasn't President of the Tufts Dems in other years. In the past, if things went wrong, the responsibility was on someone else's shoulders."
