or "Further Proof That 2008 Is Not 2004", or "The Political Really Is Personal".
This is my girlfriend. I love her to death, but there's always been one sticking point in our relationship- I've been a political junkie since 1996, when I was only 8 years old, and she couldn't give a flip about politics if her life depended on it.
I know this, because reminding her that her life may, in fact, depend on it has absolutely no effect on her, except perhaps making me seem that much more insane.
I'm sure I'm not the only person on DKos that has this problem. I mean, how do you explain, to the completely uninitiated, that you're totally fired up about something you saw on C-SPAN that day?
Exactly how do you say that you'd rather watch the State of the Union and crack jokes with your other geek friends than make out (true story)?
And how did my girlfriend go from total apathy at the political process to traveling with me to a swing state to register voters?
Follow me over the jump for the whole sordid tale.
Oddly enough, it's because of this girl that I've been so involved in the campaign from the beginning.
The first Christmas present I got from her was a copy of The Audacity Of Hope. I saw it in the bookstore one day, and I kept going on and on, to her extreme irritation, about how great Obama's 2004 speech was.
In an effort that was either meant to try to connect with me or shut me up (I can never decide which), she bought me the book. As a result, I've been a true believer since Obama just had an exploratory committee.
Repeated attempts to get my girlfriend to read the book have all failed.
My next attempt at bringing her along into my obsession was in April of 2007. Obama was speaking in Oakland, and it was the perfect opportunity for a bait-and-switch:
"Come on! We'll drive to the bay! I'll pay for gas! It'll be fun! ohyeahandwe'regoingtowatchapoliticalspeechtoo. AHEM yeah, so, are you up for it?"
We did end up going, and in spite of herself, my girlfriend registered to vote for the first time.
Then came the long primary season and all the ups and downs that came with it, and the herculean task of explaining why, exactly, I was spending several nights a week making phone calls to total strangers in other states. The phone calls from the caucus in Nevada, screaming at the top of my lungs about my elation at winning my caucus to the resounding response of "Um, great? Are you coming home yet?"
And so it went, with her completely apathetic, making repeated jokes about the Obama campaign being my "other girlfriend", on into Super Tuesday and beyond.
"Do you want to watch the election returns tonight?"
"Uh... I have homework to do..."
"Come on, I'll make you dinner!"
"Uh... no."
::
And then, somewhere between the beginning of this year and Obama sewing up the nomination, things started to change.
Her step dad enlisted in the Army, and the tenor of our conversations shifted. Suddenly, it was a little less apathy and a little more concern. Even fear.
"I hope Nick doesn't have to go to Iraq."
"You can do something about it."
"...I don't want to talk about it."
"..."
"..."
"Why is everyone so stupid? Why do people do these things to each other?"
"...I don't know."
I wanted to tell her it was going to be OK. Nick was training to be a mechanic, and I assured her that we would win, and that if he went to Iraq, he would probably just be cleaning the sand out of Hummers before they were loaded onto the boat to go home.
I wanted to reassure her, to give her all the good news I heard, and ease her mind about the situation, but it was always the same refrain. "I don't want to hear about it. I don't want to know."
It hurt, for me, because I knew that if I was in the same situation, I would be monitoring every last little detail about the situation overseas. I thought that we might finally be able to relate but she just wanted to bury her head in the sand. It was just too heavy for her.
I started to realize that maybe the problem wasn't that politics were uninteresting to her. That maybe it was easier for me because I've seen the eight-year downward spiral our country has been on from the very beginning, and that my stomach for the horrors of the world outside was much stronger as a result.
Obama sewed up the nomination, and I found new places to have my conversations about politics. I left the subject alone.
Then, a few months ago, things changed again.
She started to ask me how Obama was doing every once in a while. She started calling me and telling me the news she had heard, and how she thought John McCain was an idiot. How she couldn't believe her step dad was a McCain supporter, and wouldn't stop talking about him. She asked me what to do.
"You know, you could come with me to Nevada. You really can make a difference."
"I'm not going."
Her own personal stake in the election still wasn't enough to motivate her to get involved. She saw her step dad's decision as his and his alone, and if he wanted to sign up for an unjust war, that was his deal.
Even when we got the news that he'd be deploying to Iraq next September, her position didn't change.
Obama's acceptance speech last Thursday was the first time we listened to him speak since we saw him in Oakland together, and to my great surprise, she was really paying attention. We even talked about it afterward, without any hesitation on her part.
The next day, we watched MSNBC after McCain's VP announcement. When Chris Matthews said that Sarah Palin is against abortion, even in the case of rape, incest, or a danger to the health of the mother, the look on her face was priceless.
"Oh. My. God. I can't believe that."
We continued to watch in abject horror.
She turned to me and said the words I'd been waiting to hear since the day we first started dating:
"I want to do something."
"Let's go to Nevada."
"OK."
::
This election is not like the ones we've seen in the past. My girlfriend, who just 6 months ago would get exasperated at the word "Barack", and giggle irrepressibly at the word "caucus", is now taking a step that even lifelong Democrats didn't take in 2004- traveling to a swing state and investing some shoe leather in the future of our country.
I love my girlfriend to death, but I've never been more in love with her than I am now. And next weekend, we're going to Reno on our own money to strike a blow for everything that's right with America.
This is not a normal election. People who couldn't give a f*** about the process are starting to see very real personal consequences in this election. People who have felt disconnected their entire lives are jumping in and getting involved.
The kind of people, like my girlfriend, who are usually more concerned with reality shows and whether their shoes match their belt, are willing to volunteer for a political campaign.
If the stakes in this election can get my girlfriend involved, they can get anybody involved.
Talk to your friends. Talk to your neighbors. Talk to your apathetic loved ones. They might care more than you think. And we need everyone we can get.
Dedication and shoe leather won the primary, and they'll win us the election.
What are your stories? Who have you gotten into the process? What political events have you ditched your significant other for? DISCUSS!