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Originally Posted by irateplatypus
I was surprised and a little unsettled by the extreme emotive response he seems to trigger.
-What does it mean when people seem to consider politicians on such deeply personal terms?
-For myself, the first reaction is a mixture of bafflement and disgust.
-I believe the "change" rhetoric strikes a chord with people who are frustrated with life in one way or another and have developed the idea that the presidency holds sway over their daily happiness.
-Further, I'd bet 10 cases of beer that 90% of Obama supporters can't articulate the current policies that so need the changing.
-I just can't shake the worry that many people view the federal government as a gateway to personal fulfillment.
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Curious observations. I wonder if you've been paying attention to the state of this country over the past 5-7 years, and if you have you must have noted a certain dissatisfaction with the way the current boss is running the country.
Why would it strike you as peculiar that ordinary, everday people stress out over what they perceive as hostile, belligerent, incompetent foreign policy emanating from their own government - and there can be no denying that they do in fact perceive it as such.
As far as the emotional connections people feel towards presidential candidates, what do you expect? People have strong emotional connections to all sorts of unlikely things: stamps, animals, plants, food, guns, jewelry, computers, cellphones, dildos, cars. Presidential candidates are symbols of official, national stances on everyday issues affecting the lives of human beings, not robots. To dismiss these people's opinions as somehow not fully realized or misguided is patronizing at best, outright ignorant at worst.
Look back at the days of JFK's presidency, with talk of a New Frontier, a renewed sense of national confidence, voyages into space, the intelligent handling of the cuban missile crisis. Look at the effect Reagan's policies and optimism had on lifting a sagging economy ("Reaganomics") the fall of the berlin wall, the end of the cold war, and the restoration of respectability to the United States.
Substitute the word "optimism" for "change" and maybe thats what Obama represents.