When Politics Was Fun

At a time when our political system seems broken at the national and statehouse level, this newly found picture of the final day of the 1988 Al Gore for President campaign (h/t to my friend Jackie Shrago) brought me back to a time when politics was fun — when political debates were spiced by good-natured exchanges (and often Kentucky-brewed spirits), when campaigns were the stuff of young people with big dreams and unmuddied ambitions.

I don’t mean to mythologize 1988.  A few months later, the world would learn who Willie Horton was; Lee Atwater would be revered as the premier practioner of the political black arts; and Democrats would draw a lesson from the unsuccessfully “soft” Dukakis for President campaign that we had to hit back with two fists when we were punched with one.

But despite the fact that I’ve been involved in dozens of campaigns since Gore’s aborted run — some much more successful, a few with my own name on the ballot — I will always remember my first as my favorite, and remember these as the halcyon times of my American politics.  Just check out the goofy smile on my face (I’m two rows directly behind the broad-shouldered guy with the purple tie standing to Tipper’s left.)

Indeed since I posted this piece on Friday that commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Super Tuesday Southern 1988 primaries — which were both Gore’s coming out party and his ultimate undoing — I started an email chain that has grown to over 100 fellow alumni of that seminal campaign.  We’ve shared a lot of fun stories and fond remembrances — ranging from hilarious to R-rated to quasi-criminal — and have begun making plans to hold a live, in-person reunion this year.  Of course, as the youngest Gore 88 staffer  (my fellow No Labels co-founder Nancy Jacobson calls me the “campaign mascot”),  I’ve had the pleasure of trying to put the band back together again; as Elwood Blues would have said: “I’m on a mission from God.”

Can politics ever be fun again?  Maybe not for this burned-out middle ager.  But this picture — and our Gore 88 virtual reunion — reminds me that when young people join to try to change the world, good things can happen, great memories can be made, and enduring friendships can be started — that will all last a lifetime.