The significance and impact of the 2008 presidential election has been trumpeted at the highest of decibels, yet the true message of each candidate’s campaign has fallen on subtly deafened ears. The meat of the election has been slathered up with creamy rhetoric and thick tomato-based promises. Few people are truly aware of what is underneath the smear campaigns and t-shirt slogans, the viral YouTube videos and the grandiose memoirs, and those who have fearlessly dug through the heaps of garnish piled upon each candidate have generally found themselves with a huge load of bologna [writer’s note: bull-oney?]. The Obama-Biden campaign built a colossal stage, complete with Roman columns worthy of a big-budget Hollywood epic, with the apparent intent of evoking the spirit of Greek temples or Roman orators. The McCain-Palin camp presented itself with the tone of a Norman Rockwell painting, drawing on winks and cute giggles to summon a sense of “Hometown, USA.” And, like naïve puppies thirsting for change, so many Americans lapped it all up with eager tongues and diverted eyes. This was partially to be expected; the United States is craving change, and so long as both Obama and McCain sang a new tune of the same old song and dance, they would be welcomed by their respective party’s base. Both candidates’ campaigns went above and beyond; they added razzle dazzle to the act, sewing sequins to their platforms and sprinkling glitter on their policies. And as the economy tumbles and our “superpower status” deteriorates, we have ushered in an era of great fear. History shows that in times of trouble, man turns to a savior of sorts. And the more desperate the situation gets, the more willing we are to believe what the politicians say. Once again, history has repeated itself, as evidenced by the commanding influence exerted by the messiah complex of Obama and the war hero claims of McCain. If there’s one group of American citizens who shouldn’t be falling for this, it’s Generation Y. And our privileged, well-educated students should be the very last Americans to be blinded by the artificial sheen of Obama and McCain’s presidential campaigns. Yet it seems that even we, the oft-complimented students of Phillips Academy, have allowed ourselves to be dumbed down by this year’s meretricious presidential campaigns. Our arguments about the candidates have grown limited to subjective matters instead of the objective truths of Obama and McCain’s respective policies. The youth vote is so important because it’s fresh. We are hypothetical civic virgins, but maybe we’ve already grown so jaded by American politics that our cynicism has taken over our ability to remain skeptical. The American public scrutinized Barack Obama’s megalomania instead of his stance on affirmative action; we laughed at John McCain’s age when we could have been drilling him about Roe v. Wade. We proudly sported pink “read my lipstick” tank tops and black shirts with larger-than-life Obama portraits when we should have been investigating tax policies; we fell for the emptiest of one-word slogans and two-word promises (Change! Country First!) when we should have been following voting records on social welfare; we read memoirs when we should have read legislature. And we, Andover students, allowed ourselves to be influenced — if ever so slightly — by the bing-bang-boom of the presidential election, the same sort of rubbish we seldom fall for in a school presidential election or the nomination of a team captain. Our inter-student banter, which could have been a scholarly, ongoing debate centered on actual policies, was instead filled with empty, propaganda-esque politicking. When we could have held out a bit longer before giving ourselves to any one candidate, we allowed ourselves to be polarized by the all-powerful magnets of the media. As youths, we are the vote in demand, the “future of America.” It was our duty to drill-baby-drill the facts out of politicians, marinate ourselves in the juices of reality: what hope is there for an America that does not question a man with great charisma? What country does a man put first when his vice-presidential candidate is chosen on the basis of appeal, not substance? It’s hard to hear the real message of hope above the roar of the masses. It’s even harder to seek the truth when the razzle dazzle glimmers so enchantingly. We could have made it real: stripped the candidates of their politics and gotten down to the real concrete of each platform. But for the most part, America allowed itself to be seduced. Much of today’s youth, Andover students not withstanding, may have allowed themselves to be baptized into the league of deception known as American politics. Jenn Schaffer is a three-year Upper and an Associate Commentary Editor from Bollingbrook, Ill. jschaffer@andover.edu
