Patriotic Americans have had far too many reasons to wax nostalgic for the United States of yesteryear. When I say "yesteryear," by the way, I mean "before 2021."
Good, good times.
I often find myself staring at a calendar and having a hard time believing that was just a little more than three-and-a-half years ago.
Because it's my job to write about and comment on the the presidential election, I find myself using the phrase "Election Day" a lot. Friends, pedants, and countrymen are always quick to point out that elections don't really last just one day anymore.
Thanks, everybody. I've been in a coma for twenty years and was unaware.
Of course, I'm using "Election Day" to describe the entire election process, much like people say "Kleenex" when they mean any tissue. In fact, very few people are more acutely aware of the demise of the idea of an election "day" than I am.
I've written thousands of words about my utter disdain for the fraud fest that is vote-by-mail. Fortunately, most conservatives have agreed with me on that one. I have, however, had pushback from people on the Right for being vehemently opposed to early voting. I'm not such a purist that I eschew pragmatism; I understand that the GOP needs to adjust to whatever rules are governing elections at the time.
It's grating, but it's necessary.
Election Day never fails to get me excited. It's sort of a "kid going to Disneyland" feeling for grownups (OK — I still get that feeling when I go to Disneyland too). This holds true even if I am heading to the polling place in an election year when I don't think things are going to go well for me. I still felt that way even through the 2020 and 2022 slogs.
One thing that all of the people who are wrecking this country are good at is getting almost everyone to modify and lower their expectations. There are voters all across the American political spectrum who have now resigned themselves to the fact that Election Day may still be going on when they sit down to Thanksgiving dinner.
If there is one thing that I am good at, it's maintaining a level of righteous pique far longer than most people expect me to be able to. My expectations shall remain unmodified and I will keep hoping that we will one day be able to introduce even a little sanity into our elections.
I'm also going to keep voting only on Election Day.
I really do miss having some closure on election night, or at least sometime a little after midnight. I worked on my first campaign in 1984. The Reagan landslide made for pretty quick work nights for most Republican campaign volunteers. The race I was invested in didn't get called until the very wee hours of the next morning, and we all thought that it was the kind of electoral anomaly that we'd probably never have to face again.
Those days have been ruined by the same people who ruin everything: Democrats and the squish "Harumph!" Republicans who enable them.
Until they take away my right to vote ("Coming soon to a banana republic near you!"), I am going to keep voting for candidates who might try to rein in some of the nonsense.
And, damn it, I'm going to be excited when I wake up on Election Day whether anybody wants me to be or not.
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