Change You Desperately, Desperately Want To Believe In

I've been resisting talking about (or even thinking about) the election season until I saw anything discernible or meaningful about it. It does interest me that the past two presidential elections, and now the Democratic nomination, have been so incredibly close and contested. It seems likely that the parties have achieved such a mastery of opinion polling and tailor-made rhetoric as to render their candidates qualitatively indistinguishable to the average voter.

But what concerns me more is the personality cult that carried Barack Obama to the nomination. Not so much for what it says about him, as what it says about our national state of mind, and fitness to govern ourselves. A rousing, emotional call for unity, a promise to restore our national dignity, extravagant populist rhetoric and promises... the fact that so many have responded to such easy demagoguery is a little disturbing.

He said something on the subject that I think was maybe more truthful than he knew. Referring to the diverse throng that assembles to watch him speak: "It's like I'm just the excuse."

He's right about that. People don't want Barack Obama; they want to believe. The past eight years have made us so necessarily, heartbreakingly cynical; but we're a nation of idealists at heart. So he hardly had to sell his campaign at all--we're just begging to be persuaded. And maybe Barack Obama is a decent guy, but it wouldn't matter if he wasn't. His playbook will take a leader in any direction he wants to go, as long as the mob is weary and vulnerable enough to swallow it.

--Kevin