I think that one aspect of having taken so many philosophy classes is that I don’t really know where I stand on a lot of things. Just about every philosopher I read—with a few huge exceptions—seems to make a lot of sense. Politics is an area that gets me riled up, but I’m not going to claim to know more about it than Joe Sixpack down the street. I read Time Magazine. I read a couple of blogs that mention politics from time to time. But for the most part, I just want to live my life—play video games, read comics, love my girlfriend, make art (or at least think about it). Politics doesn’t have much to do with me as an individual being. But it has a lot to do with me as an American. And I’m a goddamn American.
When I was in middle school, I listened to a lot of Rage Against the Machine and the Sex Pistols. I wore a hat with a red star on it; I didn’t really know what that meant. I said that I was an anarchist. It’s very easy to see things in such black and white terms when you’re that young. I know that just a year or two before that I thought I was a Republican. Things change, and they change fast.
Last week, Barack Obama won the presidency (as seen—adorably—above). I didn’t vote for him—not because I don’t like him, and not because I think he’s not fit for the job, but because I believe that there should be more than two parties in American politics. I agreed with a third-party candidate on more things than with Obama, so I voted accordingly. For me, this is the epitome of exercising my power as an American; maybe my vote didn’t achieve a third-party victory, but it is a quantifiable way of saying that I believe in someone who’s not in a major party.
I believe that Barack Obama will be a good president. I think that he’ll get some things done that should have been done a long time ago. But he’s still just a guy. He’s not the answer to all our problems, and he’s not go to single-handedly change the world we live in. He’s a figurehead, representing The People (that would be us). The thing is, The People are pretty divided (as they should be. A country full of people who think the same way isn’t realistic or even desirable. Variety is the spice of life. And politics), so the biggest obstacle that I think Obama will face is unifying those divisions (there aren’t just two). Maybe I don’t agree with him on all the issues, but I think that he’ll be a good leader. I guess it’s just important to note that mere hope is not going to be enough to make change. We The People have to make it happen.
