The Obama Effect

Oh, how I do love being right. I predicted to some of my political wonk friends that Obama’s winning of the presidency would cause an increase (perhaps even of significant proportions) in the number of young people — especially young people of color and women — seeking careers in politics. It seems as if my prediction turned out to be accurate: Sixty-two individuals, a record number, filed to run for a seat on Cleveland’s City Council this year, and I’m hearing similar stories — admittedly anecdotal, no scientific study has been done that I’m aware of — from acquaintances that live in urban areas around the country.

One new local candidate was Lincoln High School student Lynette Cintron, the daughter of a former city councilman Nelson Cintron. She was a mere 17-years-old, and filed to take on an experienced and able incumbent in Matt Zone. While she probably had zero chance of winning the contest (she dropped out of the race last week), she undoubtedly has been tutored by her father that running and losing still gains her name recognition that can be used in future, more winnable, contests.

Daniel Graves is another teenager with political aspirations. The recent boarding school graduate (who bears an amazing resemblance to a young Obama) admits that the recent presidential election caused him to rethink his career choices. “I want to become the youngest mayor in Cleveland history in the 2014 election,” said a very serious and earnest Graves, who will be 22 by then and will have finished college.

A product of Cleveland’s tough inner-city, Graves’ parents sacrificed financially to send him away to a Christian boarding school where he has been a standout student with excellent verbal communications skills. “Whenever I speak at local churches people come up to afterwards and encourage me to seek public office. After Obama’s win, that seemed like a viable, realistic option.” When asked if this could be considered his first step towards the presidency somewhere down the line, he simply breaks into a huge (and very charismatic) grin.

However, Ken Lumpkin, an attorney who served two terms on Cleveland City Council in the 80s and early 90s, said “It will be interesting to see if these young people stay the course after their first taste of defeat, or if this is just another phase they are going through on their journey to adulthood. I recall wanting to become a lot of things growing up.”

Veteran City Councilman Mike Polensek speculated that the upsurge in office seekers might have more to do with the economy than Obama. “In tough economic times some people are just looking for a steady paycheck,” he said. Nonetheless, Lumpkin stated that this influx of new political blood bodes well for our representative form of government. Pre-Obama, the level of involvement in our democratic processes by young people was sinking to an alarming low, and no democratic society can survive if young people don’t get involved with the political process.

America lied to millions of schoolchildren of color from previous generations by telling us, via disingenuous school books, that any child in this country could grow up to become president. However, President Obama has turned that lie into truth, and young people of color are rightly buying into it. No doubt some young women are similarly being encouraged by the “Hillary Effect.” The country owes them both a debt of gratitude.

Certainly some of the eager young candidates will retire from the ego-bruising political battlefield immediately after their first defeat; others will continue to solider on, eventually learning the political ropes and perhaps eventually becoming elected officials. At the least there will be more young people involved in politics than in the previous generation … and that has to be a good thing.

From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier's From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://www.frombehindthewall.com.

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