New York–For liberals who fancy themselves critical thinkers, or are simply wary of the appearance of groupthink, Barack Obama’s long crescendo is becoming a bit of a pickle.
After New Hampshire, when Obama’s nomination looked uncertain, the fact that everyone I knew supported him seemed romantic, as if the entire population of twentysomethings in New York had formed a merry rebellion against the power of the Democratic machine.
But now, with every morning’s paper bringing news of another Obama rout, that band of rebels has begun to seem more like a mob. On Super Tuesday two weeks ago, the surest way not to start an interesting conversation was to ask anyone under 30 how they voted in the Democratic primary. The last place I saw a “Hillary ’08″ t-shirt was in the window of a novelty shop in the Lower East Side, alongside shirts reading “Girls Love My Mustache” and “Brooklyn Forever.”
Growing up with stories of Trudeaumania, I always wondered what it would be like to be present at the birth of a Movement. As it turns out, it stinks. Obama may well be everything his supporters believe he is. We don’t know yet, and won’t for a long time. But already, criticizing him leaves me feeling like its the Liberal convention of 1968, and I’m trying to persuade delegates that Paul Hellyer’s speech, to be fair, wasn’t that bad.
It’s tempting to ask what those delegates would have thought, had they known that just four years later, Trudeau would come with spitting distance of costing Liberals government, his charisma and irreverence having turned in the public mind to arrogance and remove.
Nobody can lay special claim to the knowledge of where, precisely, hope crosses the border into hubris. We’re all just guessing. But asking the question is important, because it keeps the aura of promise from hardening into certitude and complacency.
So, in the rush of excitement that may well take Obama to the White House, spare a thought for the poor contrarians, who seem determined to look for fault where others only see possibility. They may act like curmudgeons. But they’re just trying to help.
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