Election Day

I'd been meaning to write this post for a while now, but I needed to unwind a bit after the voting age protests and the election. Now that I've gotten a chance to do so, I want to basically describe how my Election Day went, which includes some (I think) interesting stories, as well as offer my thoughts for the future.

Voting

First: I got up around 11, to give myself enough time to vote, finish the preparations for the voting age protest, pick up a friend, and arrive in Boston by 4:30 pm.

I went to vote at 12:15. Had a little trouble finding the polling place, because its address was a bit confusing. But I found it, and the wait to vote was real short: maybe five minutes. At first the optical scanner spit out my ballot, but it accepted it on the second try (I assume it was read right, but who knows?) I had voted in 2002 in the Massachusetts election, but this was my first time ever voting in a presidential election. It felt surprisingly ordinary and a bit surreal at the same time. Maybe it feels slightly more ordinary to me than most 21-year-olds, having been a student at Sudbury schools. Still, I couldn't help some tears when I was driving back home, to think that I'm able to participate in such a momentous activity.

The Protest

Rain was expected, so I took the signs to Kinko's to get them laminated. They really raped me on price, charging me $56 for four 18" x 24" signs. In retrospect, I think it was a mistake to pay it. I could've made new signs if they got destroyed, and for not much more than the cost of lamination to begin with. But I had to leave in an hour and I didn't want all my hard preparatory work to go to waste simply because of some rain. So I let them rape me.

I picked up my friend, met several others at Alewife Station, and arrived at Boston City Hall at 4:40 pm, 10 minutes late. Turned out to be a terrible location. Well, it was really too late in the day to hold a protest. It was already dark by time we got there, and very few people came by (even though City Hall is a polling location). If I'd had my druthers, I would've held the protest earlier, but I wanted to make it possible for kids getting out of school to attend. Turns out the group I was expecting of 4-5 teens from public school cancelled anyway, so that became mostly a moot point, and we ended up with a skeleton crew of seven people.

None of the major media showed up either. Just some reporter from Boston University who noticed us immediately as we were setting up. So I was a bit disappointed. I knew there was a chance of this happening, though. It was, after all, the most-followed American election in decades. I was hoping that the interest in the election would carry over to our voting age protest, but I was well aware of the possibility that everyone would be simply too distracted to care.

Ultimately, we decided to move to Copley Square, the location of John Kerry's expected appearance later that night, since that was the focus of all the media attention, and John Kerry wasn't expected to show up for at least five hours (it was only 6 pm).

There were literally thousands of people there. Somewhat strange, since I used to walk by that area every day on my way to high school. When I tried to drop out of high school, the Copley Boston Public Library was my sanctuary, where I picked up many books on physics, philosophy, and education (I read virtually everything by and about Richard Feynman, as well as A. S. Neill's Summerhill, which changed my life).

John Kerry's stage was set up in front of the library, and was fenced off probably 100 feet in all directions, with no one allowed inside the fence. As such, the bulk of the crowd had gathered across the street in the square in front of Trinity Church. In that square is a small depression which is sometimes filled with water in the summer. Since everyone wanted to be high enough to see the artists (such as Jon Bon Jovi) performing on stage, no one stood in the depression. Thus, it was a perfect spot to set up our protest: visible by all, occupied by none.

We set up in the depression, and were immediately approached by curious people (reporters and rally attendees alike). We had a good swarm operation going on. Though I was officially in charge, everything happened way too fast for me to keep track of it all. Our August protest was good practice, because everyone knew what to do this time around, and they all did an excellent job of handling the questions, distributing buttons and position papers, keeping track of all our property, and taking pictures and video.

Probably 10 different media outlets approached us during the two hours we were there. No major ones, unfortunately, but a lot of medium-sized ones, some from other states. At least two video cameras as well.

In addition, one guy from Quebec interviewed me on video for a documentary he was making of America. At first he asked about the voting age protest, but questions quickly led more generally to my personal thoughts about the election as a whole. "If you could vote, who would you vote for?" I answered this as I had to others: "I can vote; I'm 21. But it would be hypocritical of me to change my tune simply because I'm over 18. I believe in no voting age on principle, not just for myself." "So who did you vote for?" he asked. I tried to dodge the question, not because I'm ashamed of who I voted for by any means, but because I was representing ASFAR on video, and unlike a written interview, my comments needed to be quick and to-the-point, lest they be twisted out of context. Still, he insisted, so when it was finally clear that his questions were of me personally, and not ASFAR, I explained to him my vote for Bush: no, I don't agree with him on everything (abortion and gay marriage, for example), but I think we need to take a proactive role in eliminating the conditions and root causes, if you will, of terrorism, and that is 99% of my vote (I also like his economic policy, but that's irrelevant). He betrayed his disdain for my views through his questions; he must have been shocked to find a real-life Bush supporter who didn't come across as a total idiot (I think I didn't come across that way, at least), at the largest Kerry rally anywhere in the world. I wonder if I'll ever get to see his documentary when it's done.

Bad News

At around 7:30 pm, I gave Justin a call to find out how the election was going, since we'd been starved of news for the three hours we'd been in Boston. He told me that the exit polls have Kerry ahead in Ohio and Florida by large margins, and the market price for Bush had dropped from the 57 it was at earlier in the day, to barely 25. I felt the life get sucked out of me. I knew I'd be upset if Kerry won, but I simply wasn't prepared for how upset I'd be. This isn't like the mild disappointment you feel when the Red Sox lose to the Yankees in the 11th inning of the 7th game. It's serious business: elections are real. There are winners and losers. And it sucks to be the losers. I don't really blame those who were around me for laughing at my misery when I heard the news; it's not like they actually wanted me to be unhappy, and hell, until I actually got hit by it, I didn't even realize how gut-wrenching it'd be, so I certainly couldn't blame them for not understanding. (For your viewing pleasure and my embarrassment, here's video of me on the phone, and my reaction to the news, taken mischievously by Jacob.)

Still, I just wanted to go home at that point. Having spent months preparing for these protests, putting hours upon hours into hundreds of phone calls and emails to people all over the country, and over $100 into propaganda for the Boston protest, it didn't matter. It was like being asked to to sing a show tune after your dog got run over by a car.

Add to this the effect of the huge reality distortion field of the Kerry rally: some guy was running back and forth yelling "IT'S GONNA BE A LANDSLIDE EVERYONE!" to wild applause. Based on the little information I knew, a Kerry landslide actually seemed plausible at that point. I felt physically sick. Part of me just didn't believe it. I mean, I knew Kerry had a chance of winning, but a landslide? It just didn't seem right. I started to understand the mindset of Gore's supporters in 2000, who simply couldn't accept defeat, but I vowed to myself to accept the results whatever they were.

As much as I wanted to go home, I knew I needed to stick it out for at least a while longer. I was, after all, the coordinator, and I would have been quite upset if the attendees decided to go home just because Bush was winning. I think I did a pretty good job of holding out, all things considered.

The Comeback

Justin called me back about a half hour later, to inform me that Bush actually was ahead in Florida, based on actual returns. That certainly put the life right back in me. Also: I started to notice that much of the crowd's elation was totally irrational. At first, a 77-66 electoral vote tally favoring Kerry appeared on the giant screen. This received a tremendous reception by the crowd, but not a single one of those states were swing states to begin with, so the numbers were meaningless! The crowd simply didn't understand that, and was caught up in its zeal. Every couple of minutes, further waves of cheering swept through the crowd for no apparent reason. Each time, I asked someone if she knew what she was cheering for, and each time, she hadn't a clue.

Still, I was feeling anxious and information-deprived, the crowd had stopped paying attention to us, and even my fellow protestors were getting tired. So we closed up shop at 8:20 and headed home. On the ride home, I felt new hope as Justin reported that Bush's market price had rebounded to the low-40's, and he was competitive in Ohio.

The Victory

TV was nearly useless on election night. I guess they'd just been made extremely timid by the 2000 debacle, but they weren't calling states until an hour or two after the results were obvious. Much more timely information was available on the Internet, and my array of three TVs turned out to be quite superfluous.

Once Ohio was called by NBC shortly before 1 am, NBC refused to call a single other state. I felt like they were deliberately refraining from stating the obvious because they were afraid to declare a victor. Bush, with 269 electoral votes, was only one vote shy, and he had obviously won in Nevada despite the fact that NBC refused to call it. Turns out I was right about NBC, as Tom Brokaw later admitted.

Still, it was obvious at that point that Bush had it wrapped up, and I felt pretty relieved. Interestingly, though, my feeling of relief wasn't nearly as great as my initial fear when I thought Kerry was winning. I guess, in my heart of hearts, I had always expected Bush to win, so while it was a relief to have that expectation confirmed, it didn't have the same effect on me as when it seemed the previously-unexpected would happen. Plus, it's not like Bush's victory is the end. It simply means the war can continue to be fought.

When John Edwards gave his defiant speech a couple hours later, I assumed it meant they were suing, given their actions in 2000, and all the telegraphing the DNC had done ahead-of-time, what with its army of 10,000 lawyers and fleet of six jets. My feeling at that point was mostly amusement, not surprise: if they sued when the margin of victory was as great as this time, it would just further accelerate the party's own destruction.

I'm glad to know I was wrong, and that they were simply waiting for Ohio's precincts to finish reporting. I guess I would have done the same thing if I were them.

The Future

By now it's settled in more for me that Bush will be president for another four years, and that our civilization made the right choice in one of the most important referendums it's ever faced. The oxygen is literally flowing better for me this week.

Part of me wonders if the election was responsible for the deterioration of Arafat's health which came one day later, given that he's now guaranteed to be totally marginalized for the remainder of his life. His only hope of being relevant before he croaked (assuming he did recover) was a Kerry presidency.

It also seems quite possible that the election helped persuade Iran to reach a deal with the "good cop" of Europe, now that it knows the bad cop will be staying around for quite a while longer. I'm skeptical, however, of Iran's seriousness. We'll see.

Andrew Sullivan also notes a development in Iraq which he thinks might be a result of the election:

Is this the beginning of the end for Iraq's Tet Offensive, now that its desired political effects have failed? Time will tell. But immediately following Bush's victory, contracts on Intrade for a successful Iraqi election in January jumped from around 65 to 84.

I'm not going to gloat about or rub in the victory to those who were saddened by it. After going through what I went through earlier that night, I have some understanding of how seriously bummed out some people are right now, and I take no pleasure in their unhappiness (unless you're talking about people like Michael Moore and Jacque Chirac). I sincerely believe — and hope — that time will show this decision to be a victory for all of us. If Kerry had won, I like to think I'd be rooting for his success and that I'd give him a serious chance to achieve it. I ask for the same from those who hoped for a different outcome in this election.

I recognize the possibility that I may be wrong: the Bush Doctrine may turn out to be a failure. But it's a calculated risk, and I earnestly believe it is the right direction. Its effects so far have been mixed, but on the whole positive, I believe. However, a year and a half is simply not enough time to measure its results, and throwing its executor out of office simply because we have faced difficulties seems to me a rash decision, and one that makes us vulnerable to Tet-like manipulation by our enemy.

Five and a half years, however, may very well be enough time to measure results, and how those years go will determine whether the Lieberman wing or the Dean wing of the Democratic Party will prevail. But the least-common-denominator of John Kerry was perhaps doomed to failure, even against a relatively poor politician such as Bush.

So it's a big win for Republicans, and one I celebrate. A 286-252 electoral vote victory may not seem like much, but accompanied with a pickup of four Senate seats and even more House seats, it adds to 2002's gains to give Republicans a convincing grasp on the levers of government.

With this power comes downsides, however. The success of constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage in 11 states is not a happy one. In practical terms, those amendments have little effect, since those are states where gay marriage had no chance of being legalized in the foreseeable future anyways.

However, it's a symbolic example of the dangers of too much power in the hands of one political party, and I'm certainly wary of any further Republican gains — especially one which would reach the 60 senate seats necessary to stop a filibuster. Even so, the Democrats really deserved this defeat, given their behavior over the last several years. I hope that the Democratic Party will take this opportunity to figure out how to become a responsible opposition party, deciding where it stands on foreign policy and arguing seriously for that position, rather than basing their platform on vague equivocation and even dishonesty.

One way or another: it'll be an interesting four years. Will the Republican Party invest its political capital in our war and our economy, or will it pander to the evangelical right? Will Rudy Giuliani be able to overcome social objections and receive his well-deserved nomination in '08, or will we be stuck with a mediocre candidate like John McCain? Will the Democratic Party reform itself and become responsible again? Will Iraq go down the path of freedom and democracy, setting an example for the rest of the Middle East?

Will I ever reach 1 dan?

TO BE CONTINUED...