Election Weekend, 2008. A horde of college students descended upon my parents’ home in Cleveland, for 48 hours of canvasses, rallies, and all-around “Yes We Can”-ing. We had Shabbat dinner for 20, climbed over sleeping bags sprawled in every direction of our living room and basement, knocked on doors in the Kinsman projects as a pack of hoodie-wearing, button-sporting Well-Meaning White Kids and ravaged platters of fries and falafel at the renowned hippie bastion, Tommys. We rocked out to Bruce Springsteen and cheered all four Obamas, standing in the rain overlooking Lake Erie. We surged into the last 36 hours of election buildup full of idealistic adrenaline and layers of mud on our shoes and pant hems.
We knew then, somehow, that this campaign would stir us in ways that were unlikely to be replicated in our lifetime. But as we approach 2012, those students are experiencing something far deeper than just incumbent complacency. We are faced with potentially greater depressant, the bitterness of the misled and disenchanted. The gap between our expertly-stoked passion and the relative silence from the presidential bully pulpit, accompanied by dissatisfying legislative compromises that have defined this administration, have severely depressed the base. Remember those 1 million small-dollar online donors, enthralled by the chance to really put their Hopes into real Change? It’s hard to envision them turning out in those numbers again. Obama’s fundraising will have to rely on more and more max-out bundlers, reinforcing the image of elitism replacing his populist following. No matter how skillful, Obama’s campaign can only suffer by comparison to the magic of 2008.
Obama’s disconnected base is well–documented as one of his biggest internal liabilities (meanwhile, the external liabilities posed by his potential opponents seem quite surmountable. For now). We can easily anticipate a story-cum-meme of the Disgruntled 2008 Obama Volunteer, barely able to muster the will to vote, much less head to a swing state and go door-to-door. Or donate $10 from an unemployment check.
How do those college kids, my parents, myself even, want to be portrayed? If we plan to throw our weight behind the President (as we quite likely will when faced with the alternative) it may be time for us to define our own new narrative for why we are fighting for Obama again. And then the final task remains – to do so while reminding our candidate how the perception of timidity – on health care, on the debt ceiling, on tax cuts, the size of the stimulus and so on – diminished our fervor.
