Weird Deer

I woke up on November 3, 2004 with little hope left. The night before we had watched the early returns of the presidential election together, and by the time I had gone to bed no one had yet definitively reported the winner, but the momentum was swinging. I didn’t sleep well.

That morning, I heard the TV on downstairs, and as I stepped onto the landing I saw you sitting on the couch, perched forward with a little frown.

Maybe, I remember thinking, something had happened, a dramatic turnaround had occurred, a storybook comeback, a miracle of history, a reprieve. For a moment, it felt like waking up from a nightmare and realizing the horrible tragedy that seemed so real in the night had only been a product of the sleeping world. But then you turned your face toward me and burst into tears and I knew: Bush had won.

It almost sounds silly now–to be so affected by national politics–but it was devastating.

It felt like a family friend had died despite the doctor’s reassurances. “She just took a turn for the worse over night. This morning she was gone.” And then, because of the Northeastern state we lived in, the depression only deepened when we trudged off to work. Our friends and co-workers said things like, “If only we could lop off a few Southern states,” or “can’t we just revoke the voting rights of Middle America?” None of these self-satisfied citizens quite realizing that the Southern states and Middle America had made us, their friends, into who we were.

We are products of the “rest of America,” the flyover provinces, and as you’ve said, we didn’t just cherry pick the parts approved of by the coasts. So our deep disappointment in November of 2004 wasn’t just with the voting habits of the red states, but with the moronic attitude of the blue states as well. It was America that disappointed. All of it.

Andre, my co-worker, didn’t share my disappointment. He acted oblivious and weirdly jubilant, making jokes and hatching plans for the future. The future? Wasn’t this the end? He shrugged and said, “It’s not like I thought it would be easy.”

At the time I thought Andre was a masochist, but in the past week I’ve thought about him with admiration.

No matter what happens this November, there will still be work to do. It’s not going to be easy. This is obvious now.

We both know that this election shouldn’t be close after the eight years America has endured. A return to reason should be an easy choice. But it’s not. Voting habits and moronic attitudes still prevail, and not just where people on the coasts suppose.

As this race inevitably tightens, and as our fellow Democrats throw their hands up in that Democrat way—“we knew it wouldn’t work!”—let’s remember: it’s not like we thought it would be easy.

This election won’t be over until November 4, no matter how big a lead in the polls anyone has up until then. Getting more people to vote Democratic on November 4th in the swing states and beyond is what matters. We have six weeks to register voters, write letters, call swing state citizens, knock on doors, and donate money where it’s needed.

I’m hopeful that the electorate will see clear to make the right choice this November. But I’m not banking on it happening without a fight. And yes it’s personal. I want to remember how terrible November 3, 2004 felt. I want to use those feelings—of regret, shame, anger, and hopelessness—to fuel the necessary action now, to steel our resolve against the right wing media machine that has been trying to lure us into the trap of the so-called culture wars. Diverting the conversation from policy and judgment to moose and arugula is the only way they’ll be able to install the same old huckster puppets in the White House. It’s not about “culture,” it’s about bring ‘em on, heckuva job, and the fundamentals of our economy are sound.

This election is about who can lead our country out of the mess of George W. Bush’s America. It’s about who has an economic policy that will work, who has a foreign policy that will engage the real world, and who can appoint justices to our courts who will uphold the law. It’s about who has plans, and who has vision, and who is not beholden to the ideologies and interests that have led us to this dark and deeply humbling time in American history. The Republicans have taken their turn and given us an economic crisis, a forever war, a shambling bureaucracy, a corrupt Supreme Court, and a crippling debt. They’ve had their turn. It’s about time.

So let’s do this. Let’s fight for what we believe in and elect Barack Obama president of the United States. Let’s take this country back. I’m sick of George W. Bush’s world and all of the apocalyptic bullshit that comes with it. So every day from now until November 4th let’s call voters, let’s write letters, let’s donate money, let’s push back, and let’s win. Obama for America. That’s what I’m talking about. Let’s do this.

Love,
Travis