The topic of the election came up at lunch today.*
“Have you voted yet? Are you excited about the election?”
“I’ve voted, yeah, but I am feeling a sense of dread deep in my belly. It might be the shrimp stir-fry, but I suspect that it’s actually election-related.”
“Why? Kerry is going to win easily!”
“I disagree. Don’t get me wrong — my fervent hope is for a Kerry victory. But there are a few factors that play a role in my unease: 1) Polls are inherently flawed and ultimately meaningless, but they have indicated that the race will be uncomfortably close, 2) History has shown that our country is not one to right its wrongs so easily — our arrogance, ignorance, and self-righteousness continue to contribute to our downfall, 3) My faith in the power of the universe to balance itself out has been badly tested. On an unrelated note: has anyone noticed that James Carville looks more and more like the son that Billy Bob Thornton and Michael Stipe never had? Can’t. Stop. Staring.”
“Who’s James Carville?”
And like a dark cloud descending upon a sunny meadow, my coworker’s optimism vanished into the shadows.
- - -
On the average election night, I’ll have the television on as background noise to whatever other activities I am engaged in. Tonight, however, I’m actively flipping channels and websurfing for something that looks like hope.
There are other seats and plenty of propositions to consider: our mayoral race is quite interesting — our write-in candidate is leading! — and it appears that we have passed stem-cell legislation and that the three-strikes reform bill is incredibly close. But it is the presidential race that has me glued to newscasts and electoral maps and scathing political blogs, and slowly working my way through a half-rack of beer.
I am fearful. Not in a terror-threat, disease-epidemic, irrational-paranoia, etc. manner, but in a what-will-become-of-us way. Where will Bush’s foreign policy lead us next? Which civil liberties will he dismantle in the name of his war, his convictions, his faith? Looking at the way his administration has changed the landscape of our country in four years, where can we expect to be four years hence?
*conversation run through “incredibly articulate” filter
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