Two years ago, there was a tremendous amount of enthusiasm about the upcoming presidential election. I’ve never seen so much enthusiasm from democrats. My sister who lives in liberal Maryland drove to Virginia at least twice a week to recruit new voters. I worked in a high school at the time; my seniors were talking about how they were looking forward to voting for Obama, and one told me he planned to enlist in the military after Obama took office.
The night of the election, I was invited to a celebration at a home in our community. There was such a spirit of optimism about the future. People felt that things were really going to change.
Today, that enthusiasm has melted away. Some of the people that I knew that were involved in campaigning for Obama aren’t even sure they’re going to bother to vote this year.
I wasn’t that involved in Virginia politics, though I campaigned at the polls on election day when Craig Deeds ran against Bob McDonnell last year. It was a disheartening experience. It wasn’t hard to see that most of the people that took our brochures were being polite, nobody – including those of us who campaigned – could muster up much enthusiasm for Deeds.
It’s hard to make a case to the enthusiastic young people that came out to vote for the first time for Obama that there is really any connection between a candidate like Craig Deeds – middle aged, white, southern accent, pro-death penalty, NRA endorsed – and youthful, charismatic President Obama. The best I could do was to remind people that if either Jim Webb or Mark Warner met an untimely demise, a democratic governor would appoint a democrat as a replacement, which would be good because a democratic majority would help Obama achieve his agenda. Not that many people would stick around long enough to hear that convoluted argument.
Deeds’ failure in Virginia was indicative of the democratic angst throughout the country, best illustrated by Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts.
I’m retired now, but occasionally talk to some of my former students over instant messaging. Last week I talked to one who mentioned that she was a little worried Obama wouldn’t win in 2012. I told her that it would help Obama to get democrats in the other offices and encouraged her to vote this November. She said she probably wouldn’t be able to vote because she was registered as an independent, and she’d heard that if you’re an independent, you can only vote in the presidential elections. She, by the way, was in the National Honor Society. And she’s now a college graduate. I corrected her misconception, but I’m not sure it registered. She just didn’t seem that enthused and I suspect she isn’t going to bother to vote this fall.
Democrats just don’t seem to be doing that well generating enthusiasm. I don’t know how to generate enthusiasm. All of the polls show that the republicans have been doing a much better job of it. I appreciate what Obama did as a community organizer, getting people so enthused in the past, and I hope that he will pull us out of this slump.