Another Unreliable Witness: on democracy
I’ll post more on this later—but the short answer is that a lot of young people finally saw a candidate they could be excited about. A lot of politics has involved alienating whomever you need to alienate to get past 50% of the votes. Obama seems to genuinely respect people across the political spectrum who disagree with him. These people in turn respect him—and for the first time a lot of us feel we have an opportunity to have a meaningful political voice. We have a candidate who isn’t the lesser of two evils.
The amazing thing is that it’s not “armchair political enthusiasm.” People are actually getting involved in tangible ways. For some that means blogging. This is, perhaps, not the most effective way to get involved in a campaign—but it’s still a way to exercise political muscle. For others, it means donating money. Obama’s campaign has passed its 1.5 millionth donor. (And it’s primary season.) Many are traveling, organizing, knocking on doors. The entire political landscape in the country is changing.
(via squashed)