What January 20 Means to Me

On January 20, the world will bear witness to the most significant presidential inauguration since George Washington took the first oath of office in 1789. This day will mark the culmination of half a century of fighting for equal rights, and the beginning of a new age of equality in America. It will be the end of an era of fear, and the start of an era of hope. Barack Obama will face an array of domestic and international challenges, but he brings with him the promise of a more progressive plan for ensuring the continuing success of our nation.

It is clear how significant this inauguration is to the country at large. But that leaves the question of what it means to me personally. When I cast my vote on November 4, I did so with anticipation coursing through my body. With Obama having gained momentum in the polls during the previous month, I knew that this time, for the first time, I was likely voting for the winner. The idea that the candidate who I had supported with donations, volunteer time, and enthusiastic writing was on the verge of winning the presidency was a thrilling thought. The economy in a tailspin, foreign relations tense, and equal rights once again a divisive issue—the time was ripe for someone with a broad and measured worldview to rise up and do something. For me, Obama was this man.

As the youngest president since Kennedy, he is the voice of a new generation. A generation that is technologically savvy, comfortable with people from different backgrounds, and conversant in the international language of the 21st century. I consider Obama, a biracial man born in Hawaii and raised in Indonesia, to represent me better than any other candidate who ran for president this year. His victory has reinvigorated my interest in politics, and has got me rethinking my current advertising career path in favor of something more beneficial to society. This is the power Obama has; to inspire a generation to action in the same way JFK did, to bridge all sorts of demographic barriers and bring citizens together.

I have no doubt Obama is the right man for this delicate time, and for the future. He listens carefully, he speaks carefully, and I am confident he will govern carefully. To say I am excited about the next four years is an understatement; though America and the world face many urgent problems, I feel we are at a turning point in history, beyond which we will emerge stronger, wiser, and more united. On January 20, I will be immensely proud to call Obama my president.


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Facebook and Election 2008

When voters went to the polls in 2004, Facebook was still in its infancy. Created in the spring of that year exclusively for Ivy League students, the website was only beginning to spread to larger state universities. High school students were still more than a year away, and the controversial opening to everyone in the world wouldn’t come until late 2006. The role it played in the ’04 election was minimal, for several reasons. Externally, John Kerry was just not as exciting to young voters as Barack Obama. He failed to energize the Facebook generation, and subsequently lost the election. Obama, however, has great appeal to the young and tech-savvy; his youth and composure, his photogenic family, as well as his outstanding personal branding campaign have all contributed to his popularity among a typically-apathetic voting bloc.

Internally, the site itself has evolved immensely, having added many features and undergone numerous changes that have turned it into the world’s most popular social networking site. Status updates, or microblogging, is now an extremely common way of communicating with one’s friends. Users update their Facebook (as well as their Twitter, Gmail, etc.) status with surprising frequency. Though I do not have statistics to support this theory, I would guess the amount of status updates today surpasses that of any previous day. Everyone is weighing in on the election, from proclaiming their political allegiance to decrying the drawn-out campaign. Through the “Causes” application, the site even allows users to donate their status, either in support of a particular candidate, or just to encourage voting.

Beyond the enthusiasm of its community, Facebook offers several applications or tools that allow its users to express their political voice. Within the popular “Gifts” app, one can post buttons to friends’ profiles. These icons normally cost $1, but the special election buttons are free. (The Obama buttons, tellingly, perhaps, are somehow sold out.) Additionally, the site has designed an entire election page, complete with a running counter of Facebookers who have voted and a tool for finding your polling place.

It’s exciting to see a site to central to the daily lives of millions of people playing such an active role in one of the most important elections in decades. Facebook is remaining nonpartisan, merely serving as a resource and gathering place for the hoards of election-hungry news junkies. Politics has gone social, and the world is the better for it.
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Absentee Voting Is Awesome

(Thanks to Zlatko Unger for the sweet photo)

Along with an unprecedented number of other excited citizens, I recently voted with an absentee ballot for the first time (OK, it was only the second presidential election in which I’d been eligible to vote). Nonetheless, the beauty of the absentee ballot was quickly apparent to me. In fact, this type of voting offers so many benefits over traditional polling-place voting, that I believe it should become the standard. Let me explain.

First, the obvious: convenience. The ballot comes to you. No waiting in long lines in the early morning. This inconvenience is a major deterrent for many dispassionate voters, who cannot be bothered to wake up early or take time off from work to head to the polls. Bring the ballot to the voter, and see turnout explode.

This convenience also has an important side benefit, the ability to learn about unknown candidates or referenda instead of casting a blind vote. There are many minor local races that fly under the radar of most voters, but being able to vote at home allows proactive citizens to research the issues online in order to make an informed decision. Thus absentee ballots make the election process both more rational, as well as less prone to common voter biases (first name on the ballot, cool-sounding name, etc.)

Some might argue that mailing tens of millions of ballots is bad for the environment, given the massive amounts of paper it would require. I argue the contrary. Most voters currently drive to the polls, generating large quantities of carbon dioxide, as well as clogging up traffic. Although paper requires energy and resources to produce, it can be recycled. Thus absentee voting is more environmentally friendly.

There is one final bonus to absentee voting: government revenue. Returning a ballot costs each voter about 60 cents, which, when multiplied, is tens of millions of dollars in revenue for the Post Office (suffering lately due to competition from email, as well as reduced quantities of junk mail and catalogs). The cost of a couple stamps is negligible, especially when compared to all the hours of productivity and pay lost when people miss work to vote.

Though it’s too late to vote absentee this year, I strongly encourage everyone to give it one more go at the polls before they close. But we can all hope for a more fair and effective voting process in the future.
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