Finally! Election Day. Release from all the polls, predictions of results, the horrors unleashed if so-and-so is elected and the disasters to befall us if so-and-so is not returned to office. The hysteria, the crassness, the mean-girl nastiness of this mid-term hasn’t been seen since the first half of the 19thC. (and no, while I am old I don’t go back quite that far. I read avidly of it.) The worst of it, from the President of the United States down, legitimizes religious bigotry. Don’t we have a right to expect more from POTUS? Where, oh where is Jed Bartlet when we need him?
The first mid-term in which I was qualified to vote was 1958
(yes, I are old,) during the Eisenhower administration. Ike was getting old;
the recession of ’57-’58 wounded Republican candidates; right-to-work
anti-union laws were a hot issue; and Sputnik had just put a dent in America’s
self-confidence. I do remember all of that. Democrats gained 49 seats in Congress
and 15 in the Senate – OMG, wouldn’t the Democrats kill for that outcome today!
But truth to tell, I didn’t vote in the ’58 mid-term; I was
in basic training (MOS: auto mechanic. What can I say? Army logic) I had failed to apply for an absentee
ballot, besides which I was a resident of no state. So, the first mid-term in which
I voted was ’62, as a resident of Minnesota.
The big issues going into the '62 mid-term were the recession of ‘60-’61 and the Republican and Southern Democratic Representatives slow-walking Kennedy’s New Frontier and civil rights initiatives. He was getting nowhere. But on October 22, just 15 days before the election, we learned the Soviets were installing missiles in Cub-er; the airwaves talked of nothing else. Though the crisis was de-fused by Kruschev on the 28th, the election on Nov 6th became singularly a vote of confidence on Kennedy’s foreign policy chops.
Today’s mid-term is my 17th. We are by far at our
most polarized, most disrespectful of one another, most crass and vulgar of any
of the others.
“Most important in your lifetime!” screamed over and
over. What I wish for is a mid-term NOT the most important in my lifetime.
And perhaps for a return to gathering with neighbors in the middle school, checking
in with Nancy Ericsson, keeper of the voter roll, being given a paper ballot, stepping
into a booth, closing the curtain, filling or punching it out, and being given
an “I VOTED” label to stick on one’s jacket. And for seeing xxxx who we see at school board candidate meet and greets: "that dope. I know who he'll vote for. Idiot." ("Dope" and "idiot" are neither vulgar nor bigotry, though I admit somewhat disrespectful.)
I often was greeted by shy Nancy, a brilliant Vassar and Chicago-trained
physiologist, married to Lowell Ericsson, our equally shy precinct Capt., both
deeply eager to get everyone, regardless of party, to exercise their franchise.
They had faith in our Democratic-Republic. Some among us have lost that faith and begun to embrace the less stressful path of abdicating responsibility and
delegating it all to some guy who has all the answers; it’s happening all over
the world.
Perhaps today’s turnout will restore some of that Ericsson energy,
commitment, and confidence in our system. Perhaps. I hope high turnout is not
driven by hatreds but, rather, by serious concerns and awareness that we need in Congress good, thoughtful people of decency and common sense. I hope.
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