Yes, We Indeed Can
Senator Barack Obama will be, as of this November 5th at 12:05am, the 44th president of the United States of America.
The 2008 campaign season has been by far the most fascinating of any political race I have seen. Besides the staggering number of twists and turns this campaign has taken with regards to actions, speeches, and strategies of the candidates (that, were this a scripted drama, would put every writer to shame), there is one thing about the whole election that will forever stand out in my mind.
I remember hearing about Barack Obama in early 2007 at the very beginning of his campaign, and that it appeared that he had the overwhelming support of the youth vote. This may be blindingly obvious to all but the politically oblivious now, but at the time Obama first entered the presidential race this support was dismissed because “the youth don’t vote.”
At the time, this was true. I very clearly remember how apathetic most of my generation (much less the majority of the country) were to the political proceedings in 2004. Sure, there were people I knew who were infuriated over the events of the Iraq War, the actions of George Walker Bush, and the direction the country was going towards; I myself was one of them. However, as the re-election of G.W. Bush made abundantly clear, we were a minority.
Frankly, most people my age couldn’t, and didn’t, give a shit about these things.
It is said in the psychology of addiction that, in order for the addict to realize that they needed treatment, they needed to hit rock bottom and realize that they have hit rock bottom. While I won’t characterize the US in relation to its politics as a nation of addicts, I will say that this psychology is true with regards to people’s involvement.
In early September, the presidential race had played out like a network TV political dramedy. Sure, there were issues at stake; the Iraq War had turned into a disaster on par with the Vietnam War, energy costs were skyrocketing, and the national deficit was well into the trillions, but it hardly seemed to matter. With all of the media attention on the presidental race turning into an episode of This Is Your Life with Sarah Palin, it began seem like people were watching the election because the drama was more interesting than anything that could be found on network television.
Then the subprime mortgage crisis hit, and the financial sector melted down like Chernobyl.
We had hit rock bottom.
After that, everything, from the tone of the campaigns and the media coverage to people’s attitudes towards the election and its importance, changed. The election became more than a few men applying for a job in the federal government. From then on, it felt that this wasn’t simply business as usual, but that the outcome of this election would have a significant impact on the direction of this country.
And for the first time since the World Trade Center attacks in 2001, my generation, which had for years (been fairly accurately) described as too absorbed in blowing out their eardrums with iPods and texting on their Sidekicks to notice anything that they didn’t feel entitled to, began to become involved in something greater than themselves. Within a staggering amount of time, everyone I met under the age of 25 had not just their own opinions and perspectives on national politics and current events, but legitimate reasons for why they had their opinions, and that they intended not just to vote, but to vote early. While these opinions often varied wildly, there was one commonality amongst all of them:
We believed we could make a difference in determining what kind of world we wanted to live in.
This sentiment could not be articulated any more eloquently than it was by Barack Obama last night in Chicago in a speech that nearly led me to tears.
Regardless of whether Barack Obama’s presidency will be as seminal as Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s, as disappointing as Jimmy Carter’s, or as tragic as John F. Kennedy’s, November 4th, 2008 will forever remain significant.
On that night, my generation proved not only me, but to the rest of the country and the world, that we were not just a group of spoiled, self-absorbed, apathetic children, but that we could unite as one and make a difference in the world.
More than anything, knowing this is what gives me hope for the future.
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