The Last Night Before The Next

The election and the campaign leading up to it are finally over, thank God. Somehow there will be no respite, I'm sure. I got through the night watching partly at home and partly at a Mexican restaurant which erupted in cheers at the news that the president had obtained the required 270 electoral votes to secure re-election. That was a pleasant enough way to endure what had been a rather anxious experience.

I had read of election viewing parties, but the idea did not appeal to me. My politics were an open book when I was in college, but I play it closer to the vest every time around. It's not so much that I fear persecution exactly. I don't relish political discussions even among those with whom I agree, and this is so for a number of reason. There are more pleasant things to talk about, and more constructive things as well.

Political science is like the plumbing in one's house. It's got to be there, but it makes for not too much fun unless you're a very particularly stunted individual as I once was. It is also, as I said, not too conducive to constructive conversation. I don't know when I've ever heard someone's mind get changed on something. You just wind up listening to yourselves talk, and the chief consequence is the diminishment of a friendship if anything.

Anyway, the evening went all right. I guess that gives you some idea of my inclinations, although it's nothing I have any desire to discuss at length. I just want to fill out my ballot, receive my sticker and maybe make donations if I'm feeling really crazy. I really do hope we're through for a while. I don't think I can take any politics for a good long time. There used to be breaks, but it seems that we are to be spared no more so than the congressmen who must run every two years. The whole thing is terrible.