Battleground

[paulhope]

Yesterday I bought my plane ticket to Columbus, Ohio, so I can meet up with some friends (Zach, Alpha Male, a couple others) for Election Day and the day before. The plan is: volunteer for Obama, then go to a big victory party

Comments

Unfortunately ...

[unnamed525]

Diebold is still counting the votes. I'm not hopeful, to be honest; I'm just hoping I'm just being paranoid.

[eliwrites]

Good. I think lots of our generational and ideological compatriots volunteer not just to help Obama, but to stake a claim in history. I suppose that's okay. We've now knocked on every door in Cincinnati at least twice, sometimes three times. Even Obama supporters are getting vexed at me (though not when you hand them a sample ballot and tell them about local races and state propositions). Make sure you know your local details.

This democracy is a sham because people are uninformed and apathetic.

[paulhope]

I would argue disillusioned, too, and pessimistic about politics actually changing anything. It's hard to make the argument that a single vote matters when, in all likelihood, it won't.

Yeah, I think this is actually the root cause of people being "uninformed and apathetic." You have to make it worth the effort to put the energy into knowing what's going on and caring about it.

Of course, it's not really worth the energy because the electoral institutions are so fucked.

I'm putting all my hopes on civil society now. That was one great thing about Cape Town. There, nobody expects the government to do anything, ever. Ever. And so people step up and turn their businesses into social enterprises, work on community projects, etc. The problems there are so stark and immediate, I guess, that there's no hiding from the fact that things need to change, and so people start working on change.

[paulhope]

I think lots of our generational and ideological compatriots volunteer not just to help Obama, but to stake a claim in history.

Yes. Absolutely. It's like the first time our generation has had the opportunity to do something that seems like it will actually matter, and which seems to be so unambiguously the right thing to do.

We don't get a just war or a civil rights movement. We get a presidential campaign. I guess it's the Facebook generation, and "Whatever I Can Get" is good enough.