I knew that Fitz was a Republican president. It’s been mentioned a fair few times on Scandal at this point. But one of the great things about Scandal is that the show has managed to do politics without really bringing in party lines too much. It’s never really mattered.
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Until now.
With Fitz about to step down in his presidency and a new candidate about to rise, it is becoming more and more strikingly clear that all of these characters I’ve gotten to know and love are Republicans.
Let me make this clear before I go any further in this article: Though I identify as a Democrat because of my social politics, I have absolutely nothing against Republicans.
But that doesn’t mean I understand how Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) could possibly be a Republican given everything we’ve learned about her history on the show.
She’s never come out and said, “I am a Republican and I vote for Republicans,” but the fact that she’s been working on Fitz’s campaign since the beginning suggests that she has identified as a conservative for a long while.
And it makes no sense.
She can’t possibly be a Republican.
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First of all, let’s discuss her social politics. They’re as liberal as liberal gets. She isn’t against gay marriage. In fact, she has fully and completely supported Cyrus’ decisions with regard to his personal life and family throughout the entirety of the show.
She’s clearly pro-choice, since she herself had an abortion not too long ago without giving it much of a second thought; a fact which made me applaud the show wholeheartedly.
Olivia is not religious.
Olivia supports the lower class, and though she hasn’t directly said it, I can’t imagine she wouldn’t be all for supporting tax cuts for the lower class and a higher minimum wage throughout the country. Don’t even get me started on education. Mellie is making funding for education a platform of her campaign, but traditionally, Republicans favor more student loans and funding coming from the private sector rather than directly from the government.
And again, though she hasn’t made her stance clear on the environment, there’s no way she’s a fan of offshore drilling. She’s too progressive not to support environmental efforts. I could definitely see Olivia driving a Prius and encouraging Fitz to look at alternative energy options. She would be thinking long term on this one and not what would cut costs for consumers in the short term.
Maybe it’s just because I want to see Olivia in myself or maybe show creator Shonda Rhimes is trying to send the message that there aren’t as many differences between Democrats and Republicans as we all like to believe; either way, I’m calling foul on this one.
(Side note: In real life, the cast, including Rhimes and Washington, are supporting Hillary Clinton.)
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There is no way Olivia is a Republican.
Her social politics alone rule out the fact that she would ever support Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio or John Kasich if this was real life. Let’s not even bring Donald Trump into this discussion. There’s clearly no debate about that one.
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