I voted this morning, in a crowded and confusing elementary school cafeteria. It took about forty-five minutes, start to finish. It was one of those old-fashioned voting machines, with curtains and levers and clanking noises. Now, at the other end of the day, I’m watching the returns at home, sitting on the couch with my electoral map and colored pencils while Matt paces and refreshes the blogs.
We were going to go to a party, share the tension and excitement with some friends. In the end, we couldn’t go out, because I’m sick. This is a significant moment in history, and years from now, when people talk about what they were doing tonight, I’m going to have to say that I was too sick to leave my apartment. As we watch the commentators on television I’m pressing my fingertips into my face, trying to ease the pressure in my sinuses, and when I try to spout some amateur analysis of the election process, it comes out in a sad raspy croak.
There’s an election-watching party at a bar down the street, and we can hear them cheering when states are called for Obama. I think they’re watching the same television channels we are, because the happy roar from outside often coincides with Matt’s victory shouts. For weeks now, I’ve been afraid to feel too confident, but when MSNBC projected New Mexico for Obama, we opened up the bottle of New Mexico champagne that we bought in Alberquerque over the summer.
The last few days, I’ve been re-reading Joan Didion’s political essays, which have heightened my sense of what an incredible historical moment this is. I would love to see her reaction to this campaign. I’ve been missing Tim Russert, too. I feel like there are things happening here, things with larger implications–someone has finally successfully harnessed the disenchanted youth vote, and there’s an enthusiasm for voting that’s crossing all demographic lines in a way that I think would have been unimaginable even four years ago. Defying all conventional wisdom, negative campaigning has hurt rather than helped, and the “culture wars” may have finally been laid bare as the cheap rhetorical device that they always were. But I want someone to help interpret all of this, and I’m not sure where to look.
Anyrate. There’s not much I can say that isn’t being said elsewhere, and better. I’m just glad to be a part of this, even if tonight my part of it is limited to nursing a cold and listening to the party through open windows.
Posted Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 at 8:30 pm. Filed under: personal.
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