Every Four Years.
At one time, not long ago, I felt a lot of despair when I thought about the prevailing attitudes in the United States. I am a Canadian but my mother is American, many of my closest friends are American, and I spend a considerable amount of time south of the border. Not only that, but many Americans (and Canadians) fail to recognise that what happens in the US - politically, economically and philosophically - has an effect on those same things here in Canada. A high-school teacher that I once had told me that "it's like being in bed with an elephant... every time it rolls over in its sleep, you can't help but notice."
The reason why I was so unhappy with regards to the American zeitgeist was because it had been, largely in the younger generations, become defined by apathy, cynicism and bitterness. I spoke to a kid in a Seattle record shop once, just after the previous election, and asked him who he voted for. "Who cares?" he said. There was this attitude that the American political system was broken beyond repair, that no matter how many people voted for the guy who might make a difference, the guy who wanted the power would end up getting it. People were disillusioned. And to deal with that, they had simply decided not to care, not to get their hopes up. And who could blame them? You get burned enough times and eventually you learn not to get involved.
Over the last two years since this campaign began, I began to see a shift in this attitude, subtle and almost imperceptible at first, but slowly building momentum until it was undeniable: suddenly, here was a candidate who might actually be able to break free of the constraints of an entrenched political industry, who promised a return to traditional American values - equality, liberty and freedom - and who might actually be able to deliver on that. People were uncertain, at first. It seemed like such a long shot.
I think the deciding factor was that people started to get indignant. Why SHOULD they have to feel cut out of the loop, feel like their vote was meaningless? Why SHOULDN'T they vote for someone they believed in? So they started to get involved. They did the 'grassroots' thing. They got more organised than ever before. They came out in droves to the polling stations and voted for their maverick.
Obama won, of course. By an impressive margin. And we'll see what he does as president. But why I'm excited about this, why this is a big day for me, is because it feels like an affirmation that even after eight years of being ground down, of having their civil liberties stripped away, Americans were able to make their voices heard loud and clear, and they are celebrating that fact. In one of the darkest periods in 20th century American economic and political history, there is a sense of hopefulness, of optimism.
You guys really needed that. I wish you all the best.
The reason why I was so unhappy with regards to the American zeitgeist was because it had been, largely in the younger generations, become defined by apathy, cynicism and bitterness. I spoke to a kid in a Seattle record shop once, just after the previous election, and asked him who he voted for. "Who cares?" he said. There was this attitude that the American political system was broken beyond repair, that no matter how many people voted for the guy who might make a difference, the guy who wanted the power would end up getting it. People were disillusioned. And to deal with that, they had simply decided not to care, not to get their hopes up. And who could blame them? You get burned enough times and eventually you learn not to get involved.
Over the last two years since this campaign began, I began to see a shift in this attitude, subtle and almost imperceptible at first, but slowly building momentum until it was undeniable: suddenly, here was a candidate who might actually be able to break free of the constraints of an entrenched political industry, who promised a return to traditional American values - equality, liberty and freedom - and who might actually be able to deliver on that. People were uncertain, at first. It seemed like such a long shot.
I think the deciding factor was that people started to get indignant. Why SHOULD they have to feel cut out of the loop, feel like their vote was meaningless? Why SHOULDN'T they vote for someone they believed in? So they started to get involved. They did the 'grassroots' thing. They got more organised than ever before. They came out in droves to the polling stations and voted for their maverick.
Obama won, of course. By an impressive margin. And we'll see what he does as president. But why I'm excited about this, why this is a big day for me, is because it feels like an affirmation that even after eight years of being ground down, of having their civil liberties stripped away, Americans were able to make their voices heard loud and clear, and they are celebrating that fact. In one of the darkest periods in 20th century American economic and political history, there is a sense of hopefulness, of optimism.
You guys really needed that. I wish you all the best.