I Don’t Mean to Misrepresent Myself

I’ve been talking a lot about politics lately. Over the last several months, I have subjected myself to the constant flood of news regarding this election. At this point, I can recite nearly all of the policy proposals of McCain and Obama, including their criticism of each others plans, and their responses to that criticism (well, Obama-Biden’s responses; McCain and Palin never have rebuttals). I am so full of information that when I talk to people about these things, I find myself overwhelming the conversation. I have to get it out. I have to talk! And, this blog has been my outlet.

But, don’t get the wrong idea. This isn’t normal for me.

I’m going to let you in on my own hypocrisy. I can’t stand to hear people say they’re just not that in to politics. To me, it’s not a choice. You are every day affected by politics, you are every day being represented by politicians, and you are every day responsible for the effects your government’s policies have on the world. Politics is not a hobby. Your silence is consent.

That said, I don’t know, I’m just not that in to politics. At least, I haven’t been for the last several years. I usually have at least a vague sense of what’s going on. I gather it from things I hear in class, and stories I pick up through popular media. I’m very ashamed of this, but apparently not enough to pick up a newspaper. I would never tell anyone I wasn’t in to politics, because I know how stupid that sounds. In some situations, I try to hide my ignorance, but for the most part, it’s pretty easy to skate through my life with only minimal knowledge of what’s going on in the world.

So, what’s responsible for my sudden interest in politics? It seems I was just dipping my toes in the pool, and I accidentally fell in. I’ll tell you what pushed me.

For the most part, I avoided the primaries. I was undecided between Clinton and Obama, and so I voted for Clinton knowing already that my state was going to Obama. By the convention, it was getting harder to avoid election fever, but I was still holding out. I knew I was going to vote for Obama, but I didn’t know much about his record, so I visited one of those sites that tells you where a candidate stands on the issues. I’ll tell you now, I wasn’t particularly impressed. For as much as the McCain campaign and other Republicans have tried to label Obama a radical among liberals, his voting record doesn’t say that to me. I am more liberal than Barack Obama, and I don’t consider myself a radical in the least.

It was a combination of things, the order of which I don’t remember. But, the most important thing–the push I needed–was finally listening to Obama speak. I’d heard all about his reputation as an eloquent speaker–the subtext being that he can make anything sound good no matter the content or lack of substance.

I’ve never heard that from Obama. I hate when people say a lot of things without ever saying anything. Obama doesn’t do that. There is a lot of substance to his speeches, even when his purpose is to motivate rather than convert. When I heard him speak, I was shocked to hear someone say things that felt true to me. I’d never heard such things from a politician who wasn’t on the fringes. This was a man running for president, I couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth. Or, rather, I could believe the words coming out of his mouth, and that made all the difference.

It would be easy, and I doubt anyone would object, but I’m not going to blame my political apathy on George Bush. My point here is only to explain myself. I said in a post several weeks ago that my response to Bush’s reelection in 2004 was first devastation, and eventually distance and apathy. I just couldn’t face the lies and contradictions of the administration, and I felt completely alienated from the rest of the country. Call it a defense mechanism or laziness; whatever it was, I retreated.

Cheesy as it may sound, I feel reawakened by the promise of Obama. If he doesn’t believe the things he’s saying, then he has me fooled. I am amazed by his intelligent assessment of the problems, the way he surrounds himself with smart people, his efforts to unite Americans rather than play the party game, the amazing organization of his campaign, and his smart solutions. I am excited by the prospect of having a competent president. I care, because I think that he cares. It’s comparable to the difference between working for a boss you detest and one you respect.

Listening to This American Life last week, I realized that my experience is nothing unique. They followed a student working out of the Obama campaign office in State College, PA, and her experience was much the same as my own. She was devastated by the Bush win in 2004, and she dealt with it by retreating into study and closing herself into the bubble of college life. At the time of the interview, she was working tirelessly registering students to vote.

That the Obama campaign has managed to get millions of people (many of them non-traditional voters) to care about politics again or for the first time is a major accomplishment. That they’ve managed to do this without using scare tactics is amazing.

In time we’ll see if the interest and motivation that Obama has stirred up has the power to last. Months from now will I still be living at CNN.com? Probably not. Will I still be checking it and others regularly? I think so.