I am so weird: I’m obsessed with politics. I can’t get enough Daily Show and John Oliver and SNL sketches and debates and polls, and I’ve navigated onto clickable red- and blue-colored maps admittedly more times than any human should these last few months.
And yet for all my endless fascination for politics, you cannot find a more disenfranchised individual. I’ve unfollowed more folks on Twitter and Facebook this year than ever before because every day afforded them the opportunity to boast about their favorite candidate or rant about their least favorite. And it boggles my mind that anyone thinks their well-crafted social media arguments make any kind of difference.
But then, I’m fascinated by it all over again. This type of person loves this candidate, and this type of person loathes the other side. Zoom out a little further as entire cities and districts and states lean one way or the other, and I can’t stop absorbing this information, digesting the statistics, and wondering why we are the way that we are.
We’re red and we’re blue and we’re starving for an entirely new color palette.
I’m engrossed by politics and elections because they’re a microcosm of the human story. Why do we vote the way we vote? How has the culture changed? How are various age groups and races and educated and non-educated and religions feeling about their current lots in life?
Are we happy?
Are we frustrated?
Are we satisfied?
Are we yearning for more?
“Who are you voting for today, Tom?” I got asked several times by my students. I laughed off the question as I then received six different recommendations on how to cast my vote.
“I will take that all into consideration,” I told them.
And so here we are.
Alas, I’m not telling you who I’m voting for today. I’m much too turned off by individuals who tout their candidates to do so myself.
But I’m intrigued to see the pages this country turns next. The red states and blue states. The satisfied and the yearning. The story from sea to shining sea and all the places I’ve wandered looking for home.
Our story changes today. And continues tomorrow.
This is Day 8 of #MakeNovemberTolerable. Keep checking back every day this month for new stories and discoveries of beauty where beauty may be hard to find.
