Mine was one of the 17,000 faces at the Kohl Center last Tuesday, part impassioned by the surge of excitement and love for this candidate and part aware of the ridiculousness of my feelings. Lost among screaming students and blaring music, it felt not so different from a drunken football game or concert. The Neanderthal mentality seems to come to the surface when things get big.
I couldn't help but feel the slight heat of embarrassment on my face when the 'O-BA-MA' chant broke out. I also found myself seeing this massive entertainment/political phenomenon as quite indicative of the American way - a culture of media and hype.
How much do I like his policies or voting record? Um, I like how he talks.
What's the difference between the excitement I felt in the parking lot outside a Phish show and seeing Obama's illustrious figure take the stage? Is there a higher justification for the energy around this movement than the warm 'I'm-part-of-the-winning-team-and-I-love-Obama' feeling? I do think there is. The sense of involvement is more personal.
There is a wholesome caring that emerges, which reflects perhaps a basic truth: Most people actually do care about the country. We are in the magical and brief window of opportunity where the American people feel they actually have a voice.
It's a time when the untouchability of the political system is suspended and seems to be heading down to earth. I, as well as many others, have felt a feeling that I don't often feel. Usually it's about once every four years. That feeling is a distant sense that maybe it's possible that something good, actually really good, can come from this country.
At best, it can mean we're moving toward repairing the embarrassingly broken health-care system and uniting people under a leader who has a majority mandate. At worst, it means that maybe our imperialist agenda will be curbed a bit and not as many civilians in foreign countries will be killed by American bullets.
What's happening now is this window of opportunity we're in allows for - indeed is beginning to call for - the normally apathetic person to become passionate.
For the younger generations, those who are now awakening politically, it has long been tragically uncool to stand up for something on moral grounds.
From socialist circles, I hear a message that getting involved in politics for a couple months every four years is an embarrassment to democracy. The real task, I believe, is to begin to challenge the cultural paradigm that tells us it's only important for a civil society to be active once every four years.
I'm going to vote for Obama hopefully not just because of the hype but because he is outspoken against the war, has inspired large previously apolitical groups of people and will be more open to change because that's the platform he's running his campaign on.
Eric Schechter graduated in 2006 and majored in political science. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
