Irrelevant no more

Dave Matthews. Bill Clinton. Kal Penn. Chelsea Clinton. Jeremy Piven. Sean Astin.\nAll are celebrities of varying levels of fame, and all are surrogates for either Sen. Hillary Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama. And in the past week and a half, all six have made visits to Bloomington.\nYes, it’s primary season in America, and somehow the state of Indiana has stumbled into a rare position of relevance. As everyone whose brain retains knowledge is already aware, the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is the closest it’s been since the infamous bloodbath that was the 1968 Democratic National Convention. With only a few states remaining, Indiana’s May 6 vote and the 84 delegates that will be doled out based on its results are more crucial than they’ve been since the days of John F. Kennedy.\nThere’s a nice bit of irony here. With the insanely front-loaded primary schedule this election cycle — typified by the boneheaded decisions made by Michigan and Florida to move their elections before the Feb. 5 barrier, thus invalidating their delegations — it was expected that Indiana would actually matter less than usual this year, as Clinton would be the nominee by Feb. 6 and all would be well. Then Obama happened, and now here we are about to help decide the fate of the free world.\nIt’s a momentous event for Indiana Democrats on another level, as well. Indiana is seen nationwide as one of the more conservative states — and trust me, after living in Hamilton County for 20 years, one tends to agree. Indiana was one of the first states to declare itself for President Bush in the 2004 election, and the last Democratic presidential nominee to win Indiana was Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. The Indiana General Assembly is famous for singing “Just A Little Talk with Jesus” while in session, for crying out loud.\nBasically, it’s not much fun to be a Democrat in Indiana. Or considering that last example, it’s not much fun being a person who has actually read the Constitution here either. But now, with the contested primary, the state’s Democrats are finally having their day in the sun.\nThe primary directly affects IU, as well. One key to the elections this cycle is the youth vote. Obama has been able to summon it from the beginning, which has forced Clinton to try to compete with him for the favor of the young. This leads to the campaigns paying an inordinate amount of attention to college campuses and schools, which leads to famous musicians playing free concerts in Assembly Hall.\nThat all adds up to this becoming a pretty momentous time to live on or around a college campus in Indiana, and we need to make sure not to take it for granted. The generations before us have memories and stories of Vietnam War protests and Bobby Kennedy. While it might not have the same gravitas, we were stood up for hours by a former president, and we lined up for a mile on Washington Street. For a lot of reasons, this is going to be an election to remember.