In just over five months, we will elect a new president. Citizens are demanding major changes in our government, starting at the top. Many want a complete break from the President Bush years. The huge turnout for the Democratic primaries and caucuses reveals this hunger for change.

Sometime soon, Sen. Barack Obama should officially amass enough delegates to become the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. So, I decided to ask a few Democrats from the area what they thought of him.

One local person who supports him is Bryan Powers. Powers is from Auburn. He is 31, married and has two children. He grew up in Strong. He has lived in Auburn for about 20 years. He is a registered Democrat and owns his own painting business. Powers deeply wants change.

Powers likes the fact that Obama was against the Iraq War from the outset and has “stood his ground.” He also likes his political courage; that Obama connects the cost of the Iraq war to our missed opportunities to rebuild American schools with that money.

Education is a big issue for Powers. He sees unemployment and poor economic conditions linked to a lack of education. He also likes the fact that Obama is not a career politician.

Powers was not originally for Obama; he previously supported John Edwards. Obama’s personal story is a powerful draw for him. He likes what Obama did as a community organizer in Chicago. Powers also likes his candor about his personal life; that he admitted to wrongs he did in the past.

An interesting part of our conversation concerned race. A lot of his friends are against Obama because he is black. This obviously bothers him: “It is kind of difficult to have a good friend say, ‘What are you doing voting for him. Are you crazy?”

Another local person who supports Obama is Joshua Gagne. Gagne is 18 and is just about to graduate from Lewiston High School. This summer he will be doing civic engagement work for the Maine People’s Resource Center. In the fall, he will head off to the University of Chicago, where he will major in political science. Eventually, he would like to be a community organizer.

Gagne originally supported Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich for president. Gagne likes Obama’s charisma and his relatively short tenure in Washington. Gagne believes that this lack of time in Washington is why he is not negative, or corrupt. He also likes the fact that Obama’s campaign has been positive. He believes that Obama will change American political culture.

Obama’s openness to negotiation is very important to Gagne. He feels that our nation needs to listen more. He also thinks that “a lot of countries have written us off because we have written them off” and that Obama’s candidacy “will get rid of this culture that is childlike: ‘I’m not going to talk with you because you don’t agree with me.'”

Gagne doesn’t believe that Obama is necessarily opposed to flexing America’s muscles. However he thinks Obama wants to flex these muscles only when needed.

Most of Gagne’s friends support Obama. However he thinks that some of the people that are against him think he is a black nationalist or a Muslim. It frightens him that people would be against Obama because of religious or racial views. He believes that “this election is America’s chance to prove that we are accepting of other people.”

Both Powers and Gagne see Obama as a fresh face. In our current political climate, this gives him a great advantage over McCain. A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll found that 73 percent of registered voters believe the country is on the wrong track.

However the specter, and power, of racial and religious attitudes cannot be denied. This was shown by a recent Newsweek poll. The poll asked people questions dealing with race, including interracial marriage, racial preferences, general attitudes towards African-Americans and social welfare attitudes. A “racial resentment index” was created on this basis.

White Democrats with high racial resentment preferred Obama to McCain by 18 points (51 percent-33 percent). However white Democrats with a low racial resentment favored Obama by a much bigger margin: 61 points (78 percent-17 percent). The same poll found that 11 percent mistakenly thought he was a Muslim.

This presidential race will give this nation an historic opportunity to grow. I expect we will take advantage of it.

At least, I hope we will.

Karl Trautman is chairperson of the social sciences department at Central Maine Community College. He received his doctorate in political science from the University of Hawaii. He can be reached at [email protected].