Exclusive: Teen Who Pressed Rick Santorum About Family Talks To Mommyish
When 18-year-old Alison Poirier, a senior at Dublin School in New Hampshire, attended a town hall meeting with Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum, she tells me that she already had her questions in mind. The meeting, which took place at Alison’s school, was not a requirement for students. But since becoming a legal adult and registering to vote, the high school senior has been making an effort to be more informed about politics.
Alison’s mother is the Democratic Town Commission and recently ran to be a police commissioner, but first-time voter maintains that politics are hardly the crux of her household.
” [Politics] used to bore me to death, but it was something that I was always minimally aware of,” says the teenager. “Now that I’m 18 and voting, however, I find it much more important to do research into each politician’s views on not only the issues that concern myself and my personal community and views, but also the well being of the country as a whole.”
Alison was one of many high school kids who reportedly addressed socially conservative Santorum last Friday about an array of issues, including gay marriage, birth control, and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act). The high school senior was reported by The Daily Beast as posing the following to the former senator, who as spoken against the use of birth control and the rights of LGBTQ individuals :
”I read that you were against birth control and abortion,” [she] said . ”So what happens when someone gets pregnant and can’t take care of a baby? What””only a straight couple can adopt them?”
When asked if she received a satisfactory answer to her inquiries about Santorum’s views, Alison says, “Not at all, he skirted around the issue of contraception and completely ignored discussing abortion.” She also found the Republican candidate to be quite dismissive of both her questions and those of her peers, describing him as “really rude.” Alison tells me that Santorum completely ignored the question of one of her friends and chose instead to answer someone else who had interrupted the teen.
The young, self-identified liberal explains that she posed the questions that she did about contraception and same-sex adoption because of their direct relevance to her peer group.
“I think contraception and abortion should be important to any sexually active teen,” says the soon-to-be college freshman. “If something goes wrong, and a girl gets pregnant, I don’t think any man, politician or not, should have the right to tell a woman that she has to have a child. Homosexual rights are also important to me because some of my very close friends are homosexual and they are just as good, if not better, people than some of the heterosexuals I know.”
Alison cites CNN and The New York Times as her main source for news about the candidates, but she also makes a point to discuss their various platforms with her friends. At present, she plans to vote for Barack Obama in 2012, but she is also most excited to vote in the New Hampshire Primary today. As for colleges, that news is just around the corner as Alison plans to study marine biology come the fall.
“I’m applying to Eckerd and Mount Holyoke,” she says. “I should be hearing my results in the next few weeks. ”
(photo: conservativeviewsforthegrassroots.blogspot.com)