As someone who has never been to a political rally before, I guess it can’t be too surprising that my expectations turned out to be completely off.
To start, my plan to sneak through the crowd like a phantom to get toward the front completely backfired. And once I did secure a spot in the crowd, I at least thought those around me would know what the rally was for … but that assumption turned out to be wrong, too.
The rally was advertised as “Obama On The Oval,” but the president, who still has two more years in office, didn’t come to campaign for himself. The rally was intended to generate support for the Democratic candidates running for Ohio offices. However, the crowd didn’t seem too interested in what the people running for office actually had to say.
“Do you know when Obama’s getting here?”
“Do you know where he’s coming in at?”
“Maybe he’s in that helicopter!”
Since I was carrying around a camera the size of my face and displaying my Lantern press badge, I think people wrongly assumed I knew more than they did, so I was usually on the receiving end of these questions. While I had no answers for them, I did note that not one person asked me when Gov. Ted Strickland, Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy or Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher would be speaking.
And then when I started asking questions, they were all too keen to talk about Obama some more. One told me she came to prove to people Obama still has supporters, and another told me he came with his mom because she’s never seen Obama before. There were many around me who didn’t speak English, but while I was able to catch a few mentions of “Obama” in their conversations, I didn’t hear any mention of “Fisher,” “Strickland,” or “Mayor Coleman.”
When the rally began, the crowd seemed surprised whenever someone that wasn’t a member of the First Family was introduced. It got to the point that when Strickland was announced, the last person to go on before the Obamas, an audible groan rumbled through the crowd.
I’m not trying to argue that seeing Obama speak wasn’t exciting. What concerned me was that some of the biggest cheers of the night came when Obama encouraged the crowd to go out and vote … but do these people even know what they’re voting for? Or are they just going to vote for the Democratic ticket because Obama told them to?
As young people, we have an important role in this election, because what happens now will affect our generation for years to come. Because of this, politicians and supporters of both sides will do whatever it takes to convince us that they know best and their opponents are ruining the world. Before Obama told the crowd how Republicans shoveled us into a hole and left the middle class to fend for themselves, they were subjected to graphic photos of first-trimester abortions, labeled “Obama’s Choice.” Everyone’s telling us what to think and who to vote for, but is anyone actually taking the time to check the race out for themselves? Before students take to the polls, how many of them think to research? Check their facts? Watch or attend debates?
I think we have a responsibility to check out all of the above, and I expect Ohio voters to do so before casting their ballots.
