While listening to Arnold give his speech, I started to think about something. Arnold was giving “You're a Republican if...” examples (which were all quite good by the way) and all those things were hitting home. But what struck me is this. For at least the last year, nearly every liberal I've seen in the media, whether it be politicians, protesters, pundits, pollsters, or plain old partisans , have done nothing but talk about how horrible this country is.

They talk about how bad our economy is, how we're the world's oppressors, how we're trying to colonize the Middle East. They talk about how we're creating new terrorists, how a thousand people have died because Bush “lied”. The list goes on and on. If I had no other source but these people to judge this country, I would be terribly depressed.

But thankfully that's not the case. Watching the Republican convention and the speakers who come to the podium, I hear a different story. How we have an economy, though devastated by 9/11, has come back strong, and it is the envy of the entire world. We have liberated two countries and millions of people who were ruled by oppressive regimes. Girls in Afghanistan can go to school now. They have medical care. In a few months, Iraq will hold elections, and women will be able to vote. The Iraqi soccer team wasn't tortured after the Olympics. The mass graves in Iraq have stopped filling up. Iraqis aren't having their fingers or hands chopped off for speaking out against their government.

People, just like Arnold, can come here from anywhere in the world and live the American dream. They can buy a house, get married, raise a family, and even become Governor of California if they set their minds to it. It's a story that happens in this country like nowhere else in the world.

We are not the scourge of the world, we are the light of the world. We are indeed a shining city on a hill. That's how Republicans see this country, and that's a huge part of why I'm a Republican