Undercover at Conservative Boot Camp

Here's the link

So, I sign up with my second last name that I don’t normally use, do my best playing dress-up, and to get into character, binge-watched The American Bible Challenge on Netflix which I found on a list of most popular TV shows for Republicans. On the drive down Highway 1 from Berkeley to Santa Barbara, I practiced laughing at things I usually find upsetting (this turns out to maybe be my most helpful prep work). As I try to catch up on the Top 40 of Christian hits so I can relate to my imagined future peers, I run through scenarios of my liberal identity being exposed in the middle of the weekend. However, in the two jampacked days and nights, no one has time or cares to cross-examine me. Mostly, I just smile and sit in the pearls my Republican grandmother bequeathed to me, which I superstitiously convince myself will act like a protection charm. I commit to playing the part, nodding along, laughing at all the right points. And no one ever questions me. Not once.