Maybe there's hope after all. The Will.i.am video for Obama is pretty cool. Apologies for duplicating the posting thereof, but if you haven't seen it yet, check this out:
I'm afraid the cynic in me is tempted to think this is all another example of style over substance. But, then again, imagery can be visceral and inspiring. And the smallest moments can remind us that there may still be a reason to vote, and to hope.
As I walked into the firehouse in my small, rural, upstate NY home town to cast my vote, I encountered a rare and wondrous sight. Twenty registered Democrats of all ages waiting in line to cast their votes in a primary election in an overwhelmingly Republican, predominantly white, working-class town. As we joked and chatted in line, wondering how the hell anyone was supposed to understand the fact that the delegate names on the ballot had nothing to do with the candidates whose names they appeared next to, a few Republicans sauntered in and sheepishly wandered over to their vacant sign-in table. Then, even though I found myself in a situation where my vote may have helped send a delegate one way or another in a year when that might actually make a difference, I still felt that my right to choose a candidate had been squelched by an unfair and undemocratic process - the names Kucinich and Edwards remained on the ballot, but I was a pragmatist for a day. By the time I had cast my vote, the queue had grown to forty in length and strength, with a line trailing out into the parking lot. I couldn't help feeling that the two-party system is an archaic charade that still forces me to choose the lesser of two evils, but I saw, and felt, a glimmer of hope for my neighbors and, dare I say, for the country.
Perhaps the most perspicacious Quotes of the Day from the local paper the day after:
Illinois Sen. Obama got 6,585 votes in the Democratic primary, while New York Sen. Hillary Clinton earned 4,631 in the county.
Forty-six percent of Democrats turned out for their primary while 28 percent of eligible Republicans voted.
A 46% turnout in a primary election? Maybe people care about this stuff, after all. I'm going out on a limb here and concluding that, based on a careful survey of absolutely no one, the sleeping giant that is the silent majority in this country has been awakened.
And the electorate is looking pretty good at the moment. They may still prefer to stay at home and watch reruns of Everybody Loves Seinfeld's Friends than to actually get out, get involved, or write a letter to the editor, but they are, in fact, ready for change.
Maybe not as much change as I'd like to see - maybe they're willing to waste another year or two in Iraq in the name of "safe transition" instead of going directly to "give peace a chance" or to continue to subsidize the health care and pharmaceutical conglomerates instead of reining in soaring health costs by nationalizing the insurance industry. But maybe, just maybe, this is part of an evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, change.
Maybe we will come out to vote. Maybe we'll stay interested in the issues, maybe we'll exert some influence over whichever of the two evil choices we're stuck with. Yes, we can, indeed.
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