Redundancy results in reality... right?

If something is false, the more times you say it, the closer to the truth it becomes. Right? Lately that appears to be the mentality upon which the Republican Party has been operating. This policy was once again tirelessly at work in Oliver Sherouse's Sept. 12 column, "Inspired by conservatism." This column featured two dialogues that the Republicans have been tirelessly rehashing this election cycle.

Overused Point No. 1: Liberals are a bunch of chain sipping, organic food eating, hybrid driving elitists who are out to ruin the good old U.S. of A.

Seriously?! Aren't we past this by now? Sure, most highly educated people are Democrats, but so are the poorest of the poor. Furthermore, Democrats promote policies to try and end poverty, whereas Republicans choose to blame poverty on the individual. Yet, somehow, through fighting against gay marriage and sex education, Republicans are just average folks promoting "small town values" (another one of those vague terms).

So what if Sen. Barack Obama makes a comment about the price of arugula? Does that really make him an elitist? Am I an elitist because I don't own a cowboy hat and happen to enjoy reading? Let me pull out my dictionary and find the actual definition of "elitist."

Oh, I'm sorry, does using a dictionary make me an elitist now? We seem to be using that term rather loosely. It has become a catchall phrase the Republicans use to basically mean "an individual expressing views contrary to Republican ideals."

Overused Point No. 2: Sen. John McCain is a maverick and will bring change to Washington. Though this might have been the case before his failed presidential attempt, he now dances to the tune of the religious right. When a man has voted with President George W. Bush upwards of 95 percent of the time, he shouldn't even be even allowed to use the word "change." Yet, McCain and his supporters are somehow able to ignore this fact in favor of trying to keep up with the buzzword of the day, change. Aren't elitists supposed to ignore popular opinion? To give McCain the benefit of the doubt, let's look at these "maverick" concepts: lifting the ban on offshore drilling, overturning Roe v. Wade, restoring gun rights... I suppose that could be called "change" given that we are flexibly defining our terms. In this context, one could define change as "more of the same and much of the old."

As I watched the both parties' nominating conventions (yes, we liberals do listen to other views besides our own) I couldn't help but notice the wide discrepancy in the demographics. During the Republican Nominating Convention, the camera constantly panned to white men wearing cowboy hats. In contrast, the Democratic National Convention featured a diverse group of people, many of whom were waving American flags. This is the change we need-showing pride for our country and combining the best of the old traditions with the innovations of the future.

So, to all you Republicans out there, I beg of you, stop rehashing these overused, blatantly false ideas. In election about change, shouldn't we actually start talking about new ideas?