Remember 2008

I just don’t like conservatives.

They make supposedly principled calls for personal responsibility, freedom and American values that come across to me as either macho and narcissistic or crotchety and irrelevant.

It seems like all conservatives, no matter what’s actually being discussed, always reference values and, alas, abortion. It’s hard to think of a group that has lowered the caliber of our political debates more than pro-life organizations armed with emotionally appealing but logically backward arguments. 

Right by my desk in the Indiana Daily Student newsroom there is a calendar dedicated to Ronald Reagan. It’s a relic of previous editors who were a little more right-leaning than I am. I will probably keep it up for its ironic humor, but I can barely believe that the calendar, which displays Reagan doing manly conservative things like cutting taxes, driving big trucks and cutting down trees, is something someone would actually purchase.

I remember 2000. I was young and didn’t really care about politics, but my mom woke me up at about five in the morning to tell me that no one had won the presidential election. After a few weeks of watching Al Gore and George Bush fight over a recount, I decided who I wished would win, and it wasn’t the man the Supreme Court decided to make president.

I also remember 2004. I cared a lot about that election and was both shocked and crushed that John Kerry lost. I probably don’t like Kerry nearly as much these days, but if given another chance, I would still vote for him over the competition he had that year. I still remember the frustration I had with friends who were happy about Bush’s victory, and I remember feeling Kerry’s concession speech came way too early.

In 2008 I will be casting my vote in Bloomington. Before I first moved down to Bloomington last year I imagined I was moving to a liberal bastion surrounded by a sea of conservatism. After seeing the unique cultural quirks of this town and the signs that line I-65 trying to guilt or scare me into going to church, I am pretty sure I was right.

Bloomington is a town Indiana Democrats love. Obama organizers will push voter registration because they know they don’t really have to convince a lot of us to vote Democrat. They just have to make us deliver big.

Rep. Baron Hill, D-9th, will come here because we are one of the most liberal parts of his district. I don’t think Mike Sodrel, Hill’s Republican opponent, will be stopping by in his trademark 18-wheeler very often.

Neither Obama nor Hill are perfect, but I know for a fact there are copies of “The Obama Nation” sitting on tables in southern Indiana. This state goes red for the wrong reasons.

I don’t think I will have trouble remembering 2008 if for the first time in 40 years Indiana goes blue for the right reasons.