FOR A MOMENT, it felt like a football game.
All around me, people dressed in their team colors were watching closely, not wanting to miss a bit of the action. Signs were waved. Cheers and boos echoed from the stands. It had everything but the marching band — the last of those had paraded off the field just a half-hour earlier.
It could have been Broncos vs. Raiders. KU facing K-State. Emporia State against Pittsburg.
Instead, it was an older rivalry still: Democrats vs. Republicans. The first debate in the governor’s race had just gotten under way at the Kansas State Fair.
Huh?
For a moment, it didn’t add up. This much enthusiasm, this much energy, for a political debate?
This is the country where C-SPAN may inspire a dozen college drinking games but only minuscule ratings.
This is where people can frequently tell you the top 25 college football teams in the nation, but not necessarily all of their state’s congressmen.
This is where politics is considered ... well ... boring. A time for “candidate forums” held for a few dutiful citizens while everyone else watches the Chiefs get pounded.
Instead, this was interesting. Exciting. Frustrating at times, but never dull.
It was, in short, what democracy is supposed to be.
We forget that at times, I think. We remember those civics classes that made democracy sound like never-ending homework, studying constantly to be a responsible voter. Or we look at the mud that gets thrown and the promises that get broken and decide that none of it makes any difference.
And somewhere between the cynicism and the disinterest, we forget how much fun this can be.
We lose the inspiration. And it used to be there.
It was there in the torchlight parades that blazed the way for Abraham Lincoln’s presidential campaign.
It was there in the crowds that would watch Lyndon Johnson drop into a Texas town by helicopter, call everyone in town to a speech, and then take off again.
It was there in the audiences that hollered themselves hoarse for the oratory of a William Jennings Bryan or a Theodore Roosevelt.
It was something that remembered that democracy is about the heart as much as the brain. That a voter first has to care.
These days, we get a lot of political ads. We get focus groups by the score and polls by the gross, all very carefully calculated. Some of it is informative. Most of it is confusing. None of it is inspiring.
That takes personal contact.
A playwright once defined theater as four boards, two players and a passion. Increase the size of the crowd and you’ve got a pretty good start on a democracy, too.
Maybe it sounds superficial. But if the enthusiasm is there, the rest will follow.
Think about it in sports terms. Many baseball fans can quote the league’s strikeout leaders or list the top home-run hitters . But it wasn’t the numbers that got them hooked.
First they had fun. Then they learned the game.
If it can work for baseball or football, why not for politics too? If nothing else, we’d at least get a good show out of it. And as the State Fair proved, when it’s done right, the governor’s debate can be the best show in town.
So, go team!
And, uh, try to make sure there’s no roughing the passer, OK?
Scott Rochat’s e-mail address is rochat@emporiagazette.com.