(Cross-posted at Silence Isn't Golden)
Today at Cornell, we had a rally for Barack Obama. It was the perfect day for a rally, sunny and a balmy 75 degrees (in ITHACA! IN OCTOBER!! If this isn't proof of global warming, I don't know what is!). I haven't been very active in the Cornell for Barack Obama group, but it's been by far the most active and visible of the student campaign organizations on campus (except for perhaps the Ron Paulies and their weird chalkings on the Engineering Quad).
Anyway, I went today because it took place in between my classes, and because one of the key people in this group is my "little-little" in my sorority (yes, I'm in a sorority. Don't hold it against me!).
Lineage fun!! (I'm in pink):
No, Obama didn't actually make an appearance, but he was there in spirit:
Pretty good turnout for a Monday (there were actually more people there than this. It just didn't occur to me that I should take pictures of it until towards the end):
The President of Cornell for Barack Obama, getting the crowd fired up:
A lot of people didn't stay for the whole rally but still signed up:
Tim Krueger, New York State Coordinator for Students for Barack Obama:
The Chabad Sukkah next to the rally (which actually has nothing to do with Obama, I just thought it was a funny juxtaposition):
So what's the signifcance of a group of kids in upstate New York getting together to support a candidate like this? If anything, I just hope that events like this will help to dispel the whole "college students don't care, students don't vote" myth. What's been unique so far about this election season is the significant youth involvement in so many of the campaigns.
And there's a very good reason for it. I became "politically aware" during the Clinton Administration, and witnessed the impeachment hearings and the debacle that was the 2000 elections, and the first time I was old enough to vote, it was for the less-than-inspiring John Kerry. I've voted in every election I've been eligible--the 2004 Presidential election, the 2006 Congressional elections, and this year's local elections in Nashville--but I can certainly understand why people my age are cynical about politics. But the kids who are turning 18 this year would have become politically aware at a completely different time. Their first "defining moment" would have been 9/11, and from there they witnessed the war in Iraq evolve from a battle to "find the WMD and catch the evildoers" to a bloody quagmire that's sucking our country dry.
You'll see a higher youth component to this election because there is simply too much at stake for us here. There's a desire for change, for inspiration...for someone like Barack Obama. The fact that we could hold an Obama rally this early in the election season and have as many people turn out as they did only underscores that notion.