fingers & toes

It is an understatement to say that those of us cheering for Obama are nervous right now. Probably ten of my friends have told me that they are totally preoccupied and aren't working on their real work -- those that aren't working in some capacity for the campaign, that is. We want to watch TV, but there's nothing new. The polls look good, but there is this profound distrust of the electoral process now. It's interesting, having coming of age during Clinton and his now safe-seeming victories, that the last two elections have made all the young liberal whippersnappers into completely edgy, number-crunching, poll-checking freaks.

My traveling companion in Rome would quote me electoral website figures every time we checked our email; my politico-non-profit friend in NY is nervous beyond nervous as she meets with non-profit-ers on other worthwhile grassroots stuff; a fellow grad in Berlin can't concentrate on his grant applications for checking the polls. Everyone on Facebook is sending out pings and reminders and posting articles. This is how the vote is gotten out, now. Amusingly, I think, discussing a potential victory has been influenced by the language of Harry Potter -- that which cannot be named. I myself am catching up on all of the political commentary and the pretty pictures I've missed in the last few weeks of traveling, catching bits of CNN world and the BBC. I'll be at a Dems Abroad party tomorrow, watching the returns all night.

I stayed up until 3 am in York in 2000, only to wake to further ridicule by the Brits of our stupid Electoral College. I remember the night of the 2004 election, around 1 am, I had gone to rest and Kolz stayed up in the next room to watch the returns. We were waiting for Ohio, and I had been periodically checking in with Raquel on the West Coast for the proverbial tea and sympathy. Dozing, I heard this very tense voice say "son of a bitch, and I knew they had called Ohio for Bush. I called R to break the news, and we all started wondering how all the work had made no difference. It was no love for Kerry that disappointed me, and maybe that was the problem, but everyone I knew worked so hard.

But perhaps that loss was the good strong medicine people needed. Right now, the landscape seems different - the sense of "all the work" done by tens of thousands of people is much different, stronger, inspired, tenacious. I don't trust the polls, but I take heart in the two members of my family who have been working the campaign, as somehow encapsulating how important all of this is, of a cautious hope: my 65-year-old mom, calling undecided voters in Indiana (maybe working the ground in the Mississippi Valley, too) and my 27-year-old former Nader-raider cousin, canvassing the 6 counties around Lafayette, IN in my old Honda.* His participation put becoming a doctor on hold, Mom's got her involved in a way I don't think she's ever been before. In my gut, I think that if these two very different people care somehow equally about Obama, then "yes we can" is possible.**

My sense of American political history always pushes me to agreeing with my brother, that one Congress - one political cycle - can rarely do something so outrageous that the next one cannot fix it. Life is long, even in politics. But this time we are in right now is a different one for my generation, and we need not just a new president but a reason to believe in our government again. And those of us who can't work the election right now are pinning our hopes and strength on our friends and family.

I don't usually invoke god, but I started answering "Mungu akipenda" in Tanzania when people would ask me if I thought Obama would win. It translates from Swahili as "if God likes it" - Inshallah, and so on. Tomorrow, I'll be wearing my "Tanzania for Obama" t-shirt, carrying the tension, hoping for the best.

Suffice it to say, dear readers, VOTE.

* Because Illinois is safe...

** And please let it be without the worst of the petty frauds and tricks of disenfranchisement, the parties resorting to law to keep their numbers strong. Maybe it is good that we are more aware of how this goes on, how it is a gangrenous part of our system, but I just want the system to work now.