If evening in America is the end of the day that began with Reagan's Morning, then I do So Hope So. I am more excited than I expected to be, and more anxious than I'd like to be. I've had a Genius playlist based on Young Americans on all day, which I'm tempering now with a bit of Gil Scott Heron, and I'm wondering what time to set the alarm for. This might be the first time I turn on the Today Programme in weeks.
But I remember 1992, when we went to bed thinking we might have a Labour government, or at worst a hung parliament, and woke up to five years of John Major. I was teaching A level sociology in a crammer college in Oxford at the time. I walked around all day saying 'how can so many people be so stupid?', and being met with incredulous / condescending / outright hostile stares.
That was the day I realised three important things:
1. There are a lot of Tories in the world and they are not all older than me (they weren't even all older than me *then*)
2. I should have paid the damn Poll Tax and voted Labour. Instead I refused to join the electoral register and lost my vote. I've always wondered how many other people did exactly the same, and what effect our votes might have had.
3. People lie in exit polls. It had never occurred to me that you might vote one way and say you had voted another. I defend your right to do so, but it sucks.
So... it ain't over till the skinny black guy says Yes We Can. But the signs are good, the signs are good.
joella
2 comments:
I did the same. Avoided the poll tax and didn't vote. I was properly skint though but still, on reflection, perhaps I was wrong...
Yes, I was dodging my terrible memories of the Major victory all day yesterday. I think I just overwrote them, though.
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