The Obama Pledge Video

Many called the 2008 Presidential election the first “You Tube election”. The below video may demonstrate that in 2009, You Tube is expanding its reach far beyond just elections:

Not surprisingly, the video has come in for some criticism from right of center bloggers for being weird and creepy and generally worth of mockery. There is a muted tone to the mocking from James Poulos and Rod Dreher tries his best to hold back saying,

I swear, I’m trying to be kind about this. But it’s hard. This line:

“I pledge to be a servant to our president and all mankind–”

…was where I lost it. Who are these people?! If right-wingers had made a video like this and pledged their loyalty to Messiah Dubya, there would have been no end of mockery of it. And I would have been among them.

So fair game, any video featuring Hollywood celebrities oozing patriotism is going to come off a bit weird and surreal, many of these folks’ lives have become so carnival-esque that it’s hard to take anything they do terribly seriously. But look, the critical snark of the blogosphere is only so useful, and at the end of the day this video is actually advocating for something that I think both Poulos and Dreher are heavily in favour of: a reignited interest in civic responsibility and engagement.

What’s more, while I know that every right-of-centre blogger and his dog want to paint this as a classic example of the nefarious “cult of presidency”, I think it acutally speaks directly against just such a notion. I know, I know, the now classic Obama face is at the beginning, with clips from Obama’s inaugurations speech no less, and part way the oozing celebrities make a pledge to Obama. Yes, this is all true.

But what is the primary message of the video? The primary message seems to be that it isn’t up to the President to do everything to get the country on the “right track”, but rather that it’s going to take the whole country committing to this endeavour in some way, shape, or form. The President is just one man and the challenges facing the country are many, so everyone better belly up to the bar and pitch in. That is a fundamentally different message than: the future of the country rests on electing the right president.

Now, Poulos ad Dreher might well say, and their derision is most certainly based in part on the fact that, it’s hard to take that message seriously coming from the likes of Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Anthony Kiedis, and others. I agree, insofar as that message getting to Poulos and Dreher is concerned. But the fact of the matter is that this video isn’t aimed at Rod Dreher, James Poulos, myself, or even you, dear reader. The “I Pledge” video is aimed at the legion of folks who aren’t already engaged in the political process, it’s aimed at the folks out there for whom the words “civic responsibility” seem utterly foreign, its aimed the many folks we need engaged for whom there isn’t an obvious avenue in to such engagement.

We high and mighty politicos might not like the idea, but the fact of the matter remains that star power works — ask any advertising executive. There any number of more “serious” people delivering “serious” messages that we might like to see addressing the issue, and many of them are. But at some point one has to ask one’s self, “How many people in America know who Ashton Kutcher is? How many of those people think he’s cool, for whatever reason? How many people will listen to what he has to say about civic engagement if he says it in his own words? Is it, perhaps, then worth it to have Ashton Kutcher speaking to those people?”

When it comes to civic engagement, I believe that the ends justify the means. And while it might de rigueur to snicker at efforts you think fall short, actually getting people engaged is more pressing than such snickering belies. At some point you have to drop your own notions about what getting people engaged on a civic level looks like and just go about getting people engaged however you might be able. Sometimes that will mean doing and endorsing things that might look silly to you, but work in terms of getting the attention of the people you need to address. What’s more important, getting people engaged or looking cool while unsuccessfully trying to get people engaged?

So yes, this video is imperfect in a lot of ways. But if it works, then I’ll take it and say thanks to the folks who made it. Afterall, an imperfect start is better than no start at all.