Politics on campus

Campus isn't nearly this evenly divided.

In eight days the campus will undergo what some call "the most important election of our time." Because I'm on a college campus right now, which some consider the heart of liberal America, here's a little taste into the political climate on campus:

The Facebook group "Students for Obama" has 735 members. Kind of small, right? But the group for McCain has only 81 members. The Obama student group has weekend canvassing trips to Ohio and Iowa where they go door-to-door in an attempt to sway voters Democratic.

Being a non-Obama supporter on campus is a huge no-no. It's slightly acceptable to be a libertarian as long as you are staunchly against McCain being elected and "theoretically would vote for Obama if my vote mattered." This is only acceptable if the libertarian lives in a strongly blue or red state.

Yet for a college campus in a heavily political year, Northwestern isn't all that ... fired up. Yes, we discuss the election with our friends but rarely in classes or in wider circles. There is literally not a single "Vote for Obama" or "Vote McCain" sign on campus -- at least, that I've seen. Northwestern has been whining that it is seen as a rather apolitical school, and its students aren't really doing much to buck that trend. For all the negative feelings towards anything but Barack, there isn't really anything resembling an open discourse on campus. Which sort of fits in with one of NU's biggest faults: it prides itself on being intellectual, but when it comes to sharing ideas, it flounders in a well of self-absorption.