We're the Obama dadsUS election 2008: Why do middle-aged, apolitical men like us back Obama? Because he's the kind of father we try to be every day
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Here's something that Clinton's advisor and Microtrend aficionado, Mark Penn, should consider.
Four middle-aged (Gen X, ages 38-41) fathers, middle class, each making between $28k and $43k a year, three of us college educated, two of us college grads, and between us we have eight kids (10 if you count stepkids). Two black, two white. All four of us found ourselves doing something none of us could have predicted a year ago, and something that would be unthinkable a century ago. We were all campaigning - hard - for a Democratic candidate for president. Who happens to be black. In the deep South.
One of us is a pragmatic libertarian (me). Two are generally apolitical types who have only voted sporadically over the course of their lives, and then usually for whichever candidate didn't seem as bad as the other. One is a registered Democrat who grew up in the bowels of the Rust Belt, and who voted whichever way his unionised dad did, when he bothered. Of the four, only one (me) has ever donated to a campaign.
We're the Obama Dads. And we're fired up.
We discovered each other in the parking lot of a local café one morning, and started a conversation when we were mutually admiring our shiny new Obama '08 bumper stickers. I'm the closest to a real political junkie among us, having run unsuccessfully as a paper candidate for state Senate on the libertarian ticket once. The others are fairly apolitical. One had a family heavily involved in the civil rights movement, but he's a long way from where his parents were.
What is important about us? We were apolitical. Now we're fired up for Obama, and we're sacrificing everything from sports (college basketball, mostly) and other fun dad activities in favour of going out and talking to people about Barack. We're determined. We're dedicated. We're not officially part of any campaign. Oh, we cop stuff from the Obama website all the time, but most of our arguments and talking points are completely home grown. But we have raised some money for the campaign, between the four of us - not much, I admit. A couple of mortgage payments worth. That might not seem like much, compared to traditional Washington standards but we're new at this and pretty pleased with the result. Hell, a few weeks ago we didn't even know each other.
We were all moved by the Senator's much maligned "rhetoric", finding within his words a sense of purpose and inspiration that we had heretofore only witnessed among the True Believers in the GOP when they talked about Bush and Armageddon and such. Oh, all of us hate the war, mourn our liberties, and despise the idiot currently in the White House. We probably would have voted against the GOP candidate just out of disgust. But none of us had ever considered becoming politically active. We're Dads, after all. Who has the time?
For you childless folks out there, let me dispel a myth about modern fatherhood. We're involved with our children's lives in ways that our dads never were. Modern life demands it in a two-parent teamwork oriented household. I know my kids' shoe sizes, social security numbers, and blood types. I suspect my Dad forgets my middle name sometimes. We all have wives, we all have jobs, and we all have our share of baggage. We've all got better things to do than mess around with politics.
Yet for three weekends in a row, now, we've gone out, together and alone, and hit whichever large informal gathering we can. And we've started talking to other dads about Barack. Not because we hate Hillary (although I'm not a fan). But because we see Barack Obama, and we see a way to fight for our kids' future in a way that Hillary just doesn't inspire. And the other Dads are listening. We've found quite a few formerly apolitical Obama Dads, and encouraged them to start their own informal groups. We don't ask them to join anything. That's not what this is about. We ask them to consider the merits of the candidates, consider the future, and think about their kids. That's all.
We've gotten tremendous response. Most of the guys we talk to are primed for this kind of fresh air, and secretly pine for a fresh start for the political process. We've found die-hard conservatives fed up with the GOP, moderate independents who have been looking for a way through the usual Coke versus Pepsi "choice" traditionally offered by American politics, and liberal guys uncomfortable with the stands that Hillary Clinton has taken on a variety of subjects. It doesn't take them much to get fired up, and once we point them to a few websites we back off and let them forge ahead on their own. Again, it's not about joining an organization - it's about finding the courage to see past the white papers and the blatant manipulation to the real meat of the matter: our kids.
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More:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/terry_mancour/2008/02/the_obama_dads.htmlGreat story!
:woohoo:
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