I used to be a political animal.
It started young; I was volunteering for Gene McCarthy’s 1968 presidential bid before I was twelve. And my first-ever mixed drink came at the Sioux Falls Coliseum in November 1972, while George McGovern was conceding to Richard Nixon.
My friend Pam and I had taken the day off from high school, with our parents’ blessing, to call likely Democratic voters and line up rides to the polls for them. We didn’t even bother asking if they were likely to vote for McGovern; we all knew that race was lost. It was the other Dems we were concerned about.
As McGovern was conceding, one of the college guys who’d been driving people to vote all day came up to Pam and me with a couple of rum and Cokes. “It’s the end of our country,” he said darkly. (When I tell this story in person, I always add, “And he was darn close to right.”)
I was involved in some interesting political coverage after I graduated from college, including McGovern’s eventual Senate defeat and the crazy night in 1986 when two followers of Lyndon LaRouche won the Illinois primary. And in January 2009, I was one of the million or more who braved winter’s chill on the National Mall to watch Barack Obama’s inauguration.
But this year, I can’t work up much energy for the election. To be honest, I had more interest in who was going to win on the finale of the History Channel’s “Ice Road Truckers” series. However, I attribute part of my lack of concern to the fact that I’m trying to live more in the moment in my own life and worrying less about what might or might happen with book proposals and the like. I blogged about it today at Your Daily Tripod.
But don’t worry. I’ll still be heading to the Arlington County Central Library come Election Day to cast my ballot.
