All this presidential talk has me reminiscing.
I had voted in two previous presidential elections before the 2008 campaign, the Bush v. Gore of 2000 and Bush v. Kerry in 2004. In either election, I can't remember the fervor of America's youth growing as evident and palpable as this. It was quite surreal, actually.
During the 2008 election I was living in Baton Rouge, LA, smack in the middle of the conservative south. I distinctly remember one of my very good friends with whom I worked strongly considering a vote for Obama solely based on his promise of universal health care. She had traditionally been a conservative. However, because our place of employment didn't offer a health care option at that time, she felt a "Medicare-for-all" plan was her best shot at getting affordable coverage for her and her daughter.
I don't know what's going to happen this time around. I think more than anything else, the current political climate has succeeded in pushing the public further into disillusion and dissatisfaction with the government's machinery. I do believe the youth will be much more difficult to energize. The Republicans have never really been able to do it. The Democrats have before, but much of the strategy from the political right in the last two years has substantially limited the Dems ability to rally the 18-30 troops. And honestly, I don't know if the liberals have displayed the spine to deserve those votes (except for that one time when Obama shot bin Laden in the face with a bazooka).
I guess they'll be no more dope political music videos with Kanye in them. That's a real shame.
peace.
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