Thursday, August 21, 2008

On Obama

Demographically I fall squarely into Obama's base. I am a young, middle-class, highly educated male and more or less post-partisan. I am the generation who is raised on cynicism on the absurdity of the political process. Who regard the most trusted person in America, the person with the most integrity, as comedian Jon Stewart.

Obama's legendary charisma is better remarked elsewhere and it's easy to become captivated in the man. I've been a supporter ever since the 2004 Democratic Convention and changed my party affiliation to democrat in order to vote in the primary. This was my first time voting in a primary, my first time donating to a political campaign, my first time being enthusiastically for a candidate for office. I am not alone.

Obama is the first presidential candidate to be untouched by Vietnam-era boomer politics, of identity politics. He is post-partisan in a good way. Not "bipartisan" in the way the Joe Lieberman is, but represents a pragmatic, nuanced, and intelligent approach to politics.

Reading his books and watching him speak makes me feel inspired. Now this is actually quite difficult for me to admit. A large part of Obama's draw is an emotional resonance that I am wary of, the whole charge of us Obama supporters being a cult. I am a skeptic and an atheist and anything that is unable to be confirmed by empirical evidence is automatically suspect. Though I have a flair for and appreciation of rhetoric, I am more convinced by hard facts and accurate statistics. However, Obama makes me proud to be an American and hopeful as to what this country has to offer.

More to come later.