Garrison Keillor’s speech on Sunday night was the finest I’ve heard on politics yet. Ralph Nader is a windbag! John Kerry is a thinking man! I am a Democrat because I believe that, in Keillor’s words, “If you are successful, you come out of this country and this culture and you owe something back.” He ought to be writing speeches for John Kerry or running for office himself. How wooden “Bring. It. On.” sounds when compared to Keillor’s summons to democratic arms in the name of curiosity, necessity, and excitement!

Keillor made Dennis Kucinich, who preceded him, look irrelevant and out of his league. Kucinich’s place on the campaign trail is to convince people who are thinking about voting Green or for Nader to vote for Kerry. Instead, Kucinich wandered on about peace and youth as if auditioning for PBS daytime programming. Macalester first-years eat up this sort of stuff, but it has no bearing on the upcoming election. We need to beat Bush, and beat him so badly that the Republicans correct their ever-increasing tilt to the right. Getting rid of this evangelical neo-con crap means getting serious. The cotton-candy peace talk should be bottled up next to the Kerry campaign’s cyanide pills. Howard Dean’s admirable advocacy on Kerry’s behalf shows that he gets it, so why doesn’t Kucinich?

Keillor, in contrast, offered up quite a few reasons why John Kerry is a fine candidate, which he summed up with a description of the nominee as a decent, caring, experienced, and thoughtful man. Exciting Kerry is not, and he has screwed up, most infamously on Iraq, but he remains extremely strong on almost every issue from a mainstream liberal’s perspective.

What I liked most about Keillor’s rallying cry was that it made me feel powerful and inspired. “I want you to do this because it’s a fun thing to do,” he said. Truly, this fall is a great time to express oneself and to engage others. It’s a chance to get swept up in campus excitement and celebrate what a fabulous place America is, girlie-men and all!

When I found myself shouting away for Betty McCollum and Garrison Keillor, often on my own, I didn’t give my exuberance a second thought. Why should I? These are folks worth believing in! Who cares if I look a fool? Let’s live a little and let loose! When this election is over and done with, I want to have done everything I could have to help Kerry, regardless of the outcome.

Unfortunately, it didn’t appear to me that the rest of the audience felt the same way. Macalester’s liberal lions appeared about as exuberant as cold dead fish. They applauded politely, stood up at the proper moments, and when finally roused by Keillor’s delicious rhetoric, roared only about half as loudly as the man deserved. They were paralyzed by self-consciousness, afraid to excel in exuberance. With the help of a couple of friends, I tried to tease my meek classmates into something resembling warmth, but when I let out a good whoop while Keillor spoke of the joy of self-expression, about a hundred heads swiveled towards me as if I had just farted in the library. Keillor’s speech was so good that he should have been mobbed; he should have had difficulty exiting the building without help from security. Instead, the crowds dashed off to dinner, thus saving themselves from the Michael Barnes embarrassment.

I know this event wasn’t planned as a pep rally, but we don’t have to be carrying signs or protesting to get excited. Macalester kids are smart and aware, and I don’t doubt that almost all of us will do the right thing and vote for Kerry in November. But we are capable of more. We must be enthusiastic and persuasive this fall.

When I volunteer at Kerry events, several people over the age of 50 always tell me how glad they are to see someone my age that cares about the future. They are often quite pessimistic in the face of the Bush administration’s successes. Sunday morning, I attended a training session for St. Paul Kerry campaign volunteers, and not a single Mac student besides myself was there! That was disgraceful!

We have complained enough about Bush. We have worried about offending people for too long. No more excuses. Please, involve yourself in the Kerry campaign in some way—whether by signing up to go door to door or reasoning with wavering friends. As Garrison Keillor said, “Don’t be disinterested and don’t be afraid of the outcome!”