Election Day 2008

It has been a whole week since our country elected a new president.

I’ve been rolling this blog post around in my brain for a week, trying to capture what I have been feeling and thinking about this subject, in addition to sharing a little of my experiences over the past weeks and months during this presidential campaign. I’m glad I didn’t post right away on Tuesday or Wednesday, or even later in the week, because a lot has happened since then, both in the national and local media and in my social circles.

Many of you know I have never been very interested in politics. As many people have said lately, talking about religion or politics can be a sticky subject. I usually reserve those conversations for people whom I know agree with me, or with whom I know I can have a safe discussion, where no tempers flare and no feelings are hurt. I don’t like angry arguments about religion OR politics, because I don’t think a shouting match ever changed someone’s mind about how he feels about anything, much less either of these controversial topics.

As I have mentioned before, I remember getting annoyed with my roommates as we watched the results for the 2000 election in our living room on Morse street in Liberty. It was two against one in favor of the republican side in our house (with me abstaining from caring at all). There were lots of shouting matches, and hurt feelings galore. I tended to leave the house when the news was on, and the night of the election I stayed far away. I don’t even think I voted in that election. I just didn’t care.

I voted in 2004, but again, I didn’t have a whole lot of passion for the election. I voted because I felt it was my civic duty, and because I didn’t really agree with the turns the war in Iraq had taken, but it was a very passive interest, and after the election was over I didn’t feel much besides relief that political ads wouldn’t be interrupting my favorite t.v. shows, and that we’d have a lot less junk mail to recycle.

So why was this election different for me? I’m older, obviously, than I was four or eight years ago, and with age comes a tiny smattering of wisdom, or at least exposure to things like taxes and social issues and healthcare and the like. The longer I’m on the planet, the more I’m exposed to the things I vaguely remember my parents having serious conversations about when I was a child, and I have become the person responsible for dealing with those issues.

In addition to my becoming a little bit more of a grown-up, there were so many issues at stake during this election that I and most people I know couldn’t help sitting up a little bit straighter and paying attention. The war, the economy, healthcare, the environment, and our relationship as a country with the rest of the world. No matter what side of the political line you fall on, these things affect you, and you probably have opinions about what should be done about them. The whole country is struggling with debt and housing prices and job availability. The whole country is worried about our troops overseas and this war that is different from any other confrontation we’ve been involved with. The whole country is paying higher premiums for health insurance, and most people I know are having to work a little harder to make ends meet. The whole country is affected by the state of our environment, whether by gas prices or leaving the country a passable place for our children to live in.

Through the course of this election season, I became a political news junkie. I started reading blogs and watching web sites for political updates. I started watching television shows that I never thought I’d be interested in. I can name political correspondents and pundits, on the left and the right. I started having political discussions at work and at play, with people whom I knew disagreed with me, and with people about whose political affiliations I wasn’t quite sure.

I was pleased to learn that many people I talked to, while we may have been on different sides of the fence, wanted to have an energetic but friendly conversation about politics. I’m glad that I have friends that lean towards both ends of the spectrum, and that I know so many people who can speak intelligently about their beliefs. I’m proud of the fact that I could participate a little, and sometimes even sounded like I knew what I was talking about.

I got so involved in this election that I put up a campaign sign at my house, and I put a bumper sticker on my car. I wore a pin to show support for the candidate I believed in. Sometimes I would look in the mirror and wonder where this enthusiasm came from—when did I become someone who cares about politics? It seems to have snuck up on me.

The day of the election, I took off work, and went to the Obama campaign office in downtown Kansas City to see what I could do to help. Me, Ms. Apathetic, Ms. Avoider-of-Confrontation. I signed up to knock on people’s doors for the candidate I supported. Two friends and I ended up in Lee’s Summit, working to get out the vote for Obama-Biden. I don’t think we changed anyone’s minds, but I felt empowered and energized—the weather was great that day, and the people we talked to were friendly and excited about having their vote counted that day.

I think this is the first time on my blog that I’ve mentioned who I voted for this year. Towards the end of the election, I posted a few notes on my Facebook page about it. I watched all the debates, read both candidate’s web sites, and followed all the news stories about the campaign. I felt informed. Probably for the first time in my political life.

On Tuesday night after the election, I went to a watch party at Flying Saucer in Kansas City’s new Power & Light district. It was an unofficial Obama volunteers party, and I don’t know how the word even got out, but the place was as packed as I’ve ever seen it, filled with supporters of the Obama campaign. Everyone was excited. We watched the results come in. Some people booed when a state would post a majority for McCain, but for the most part the energy was positive.

When the west coast polls were getting ready to close, the whole place counted down the seconds like it was New Year’s eve, and when CNN declared Obama the winner, the room exploded. People were jumping on furniture, cheering and clapping, gasping, and even crying. Complete strangers hugged each other, and high-fived, and everyone was smiling ear-to-ear. The joy was infectious, and everyone was in awe.

The rest of the evening, through McCain’s speech and then Obama’s, there wasn’t a boo or a sneer or a smug statement to be heard in the place. Everyone listened with rapt attention as both candidates spoke, and there was a sense of wonder over the whole crowd. While Obama spoke, I had the opportunity to stand behind two well-dressed young African American men, who kept looking at each other and around the room with a glint in their eyes, and you could tell that they thought that anything was possible at that moment, as did everyone else in the room. I left that evening with a glowing heart.

The rest of the week brought a flurry of mixed emotions. Some were not so great. It’s hard to tell what I would have felt like if my candidate didn’t win—one can never know what happens on the road not taken. I read and heard things from friends, acquaintances, and co-workers that were negative, and in some cases almost hateful, from one person at the office. Because politics affects people at their core, and the decision for whom to vote was so much mixed with people’s sense of self and deeply held values, I understand where it came from. Like I said, if the results had gone the other direction, I may have felt the same way.

One thing I think Barack Obama did well in this election was appeal to people’s sense of the greater good. He spoke a lot about unity, and about coming together across the divide in our country, which in some places is very wide and very deep. John McCain spoke about it, too, and as my dad said to me the other day, both men have the best interests of our country at heart, and truly want to make the United States a better place for the whole of the nation. My dad and I agreed that there wasn’t one thing that either candidate did or said that made us feel this way—more of an intangible feeling we both got about these two men, who are great leaders and great Americans. While they may have gone about changing our country in different ways, I believe they both wanted sincerely to change it for the better.

After I expressed my dismay about some of the things I heard to my friend Red, she sent me a link to a clip from The View. Normally, I hate this show. Hearing those women talking over each other in progressively louder and more obnoxious tones grates on my nerves—or maybe it reminds me too much of myself and my friends, trying to talk over each other to get our own stories heard, rather than really actively listening to each other. Anyway, this clip was great, and encompassed just what I had been feeling. Elisabeth Hasslebeck, who went out on the campaign trail with the McCain-Palin camp, and who is obviously a republican, phrased well what I hope for our country: that we can come together in the midst of all these troubles we are trying to work through, and work on it together. That we can stop the bickering and divisiveness and work to make our country a better place. Yes, this nation of ours has its flaws, but really, aren’t we living in a place of great opportunity? Sherri Shepherd touched on this as she talked about watching the election results with her young son. She had been undecided up until the last, and even declined to mention who she finally voted for, but I liked what she said about the momentous feeling of the occasion.

I know this has turned into a long blog post…I have had lots of thoughts in my head in the past week. What I hope for our country is that we can work together. I think it is amazing that we live in a place where our votes can be counted, each and every one. That we can support who we want, and that we can speak out for and against both candidates and issues. We are so lucky to live in a place where dissention is not only allowed, but encouraged. Where political and religious freedom are rights that all Americans hold, and that we can all express our beliefs freely. I don’t hold any false ideas that all people are treated equally in this country…there are still places where race is an issue, or religious beliefs are sneered at, or people’s rights are being infringed upon because of their sexual orientation. There are still deep chasms that need to be mended before we’ll all truly be equal.

I’m proud of all of my friends and family who made sure they voted, whomever they supported, whatever issues they voted yes or no to on their ballots, because it is a privilege to live in a place where we can do such a thing. If we can come together, if we can treat each other as we want to be treated, we’ll really be getting somewhere. I heard a great story on NPR—young people, most who weren’t even old enough to vote yet, talking about the future of our country and their hands in making it great. I’ll leave you with that. Thanks for reading the longest post ever!

A President Kids Can Look Up To