Things I Hope America Will Remember This Election

In celebration of the elections (and my coupon for a free rental at the video store around the corner) I rented The American President this evening. It's always been a favorite movie of mine, Aaron Sorkin is a great writer and Michael Douglas is so good in it. But as I was watching it I was thinking a lot about current events and the decisions people in this country have to make this year.

It's fantastic that so many people who have never taken a keen interest in the electoral process are tuning in for this election. I'm 22 and I can say with conviction that voting and current issues are not core concerns with many people in my age bracket. Instead, I spend my days trying to finish all the work I have to do- school work, job work, commissions for friends. Remembering to SHOWER is often a chore. Making money, paying bills, staying on top of my train wreck life, those are the things I generally spend my time considering, and I don't think I'm out of line when I say that many people my age feel similarly.

Often I have talked with my friends and speculated why "kids" today don't get worked up over things like they did in the 60's and 70's. We thought perhaps our level of disaffected-ness could be attributed to over-stimulation by computers, internet, etc. (why get worked up about it in real life when you can shout at the cloud online?) Perhaps, we thought, it was due to the lack of a draft for the Iraq war. It's hard to say why people my age have seemed to care less and less in recent years, but for the first time I can say there has been so much more visible interest in politics on this campus than I have seen before, even during the '04 election. It's not even Obama support necessarily, it's both sides. And I think that is great. I think people our age have GOT to take interest, because we can actually DO something about the direction we take the world. We each have a say, and I think so many young Americans underestimate that. They underestimate the good they can do. Last Sunday a history major knocked on my door asking if I was registered to vote. I am wildly enthusiastic about this election and I don't even want to spend my Sundays that way. But she did.

Near the end of The American President, Michael Douglas gives a wonderful speech against his opponent (played by Richard Dreyfus)about character. With the way our own election has been going, the words Aaron Sorkin wrote really resonated with me, so I'm going to quote what I think is a pertinent excerpt:

"I've known [Bob Rumson] for years, and I'd been operating under the assumption that the reason [Bob] devotes so much time and energy shouting at the rain was that he simply didn't get it. Well, I was wrong, [Bob's] problem isn't that he doesn't get it; [Bob's] problem is that he can't sell it. We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, [Bob Rumson] is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections.
You gather a group, of middle-age, middle-class, middle-income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family, and American values, and character..."

Myself, I like playing a game where I substitute the name in <> with "John McCain." Personally I feel that McCain has spun his platform by the day if not by the hour, telling Americans not what he believes, but what he believes will get him elected. He's not interested in telling us about his plans, I don't even know what his plans are because he's alluded to so many, constantly changing, vaguely formed ones that when I try to put the pieces together I get confused. Mostly I feel that he is praying on our fears- about Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Palestine, and now the economy. And when things go south for him he blames the problems on other people, other groups, other countries. If John McCain admitted some wrongs in a self effacing way, if he offered some explanation for his errors humbly I would be less upset, because accountability is an extremely presidential quality. (I really think politicians forget this) But all I hear is from one side of his mouth that Obama/ foreign countries/ Americans are to blame for problems while from the other side he says we need to stop playing the blame game. In the words of Sarah Palin, "it makes me ill."

I don't pretend to assume Obama has all the answers. But for the first time there seems to be someone who honestly cares about sacrificing himself for the good of others rather than sacrificing others for the good of himself. I can't say what kind of president he will be, but he is intelligent and has the ability to motivate. He is respected internationally, if not by his own peers. I think it's time that America rose to meet its espoused idealism, rather than pandering to the lowest common denominator. We must move forward, not backward.

Even if you aren't going to vote for Barack Obama, at least vote intelligently. Look at the issues, check the facts and don't blindly accept what a candidate or reporter tells you, no matter what "side" they're on. Because if the past 8 years has taught me something, it's that you can't trust anything- you've got to verify it yourself. Be smarter than the politicians think you are, America!