This expresses it better than what I was trying to say before.
Every election year since I’ve been teaching, I’ve told the same story to my students to try to give them perspective. I went to a very conservative college, where probably 80% of the student body were registered Republicans. On the night of the 1992 election, I was walking around campus, and as the results came in, there was a palpable sense of despair; so much so that the next day in chapel, the school president felt the need to reassure people that the election of Bill Clinton did not call into doubt the existence or omnipotence of God.
When I got into my dorm room, I found my roommate listening to George Bush’s concession speech on the radio. My roommate was not a US citizen, but a Liberian who had escaped that country’s civil war and enrolled in college in the US. Despite (or perhaps because of) that, he was very invested in the election and an ardent Bush supporter. But when I saw him, I was stunned to find him not at all depressed at the result of the election; normally very low-key, he was positively giddy as he listened to his candidate admit defeat and praise his opponent. I was thinking he was misunderstanding what was going on; until I realized that I was the one unclear on the concept.
John was thrilled just to see a peaceful change of power. Having lived his whole life in West Africa, he, like 99% of the people in the history of the planet, had never seen a person in political power willingly give it up. What I took as a given was to him a source of wonder.
The point I make with my students is that, as much as the politicians and the talking heads want to convince us that the apocalypse will come if we elect the wrong guy, the reality is that checks and balances, as well as politicians’ desire for re-election, ensure that the vast majority of what happens will be things that the vast majority of us can go along with. No matter what happens in any American election, 99% of us will find our lives 99% unchanged. That’s a good thing, one that’s easy to forget when you watch TV more than once a month.
I wish I could think of something to add on. Brilliant!
The post reminds me of a conversation we had at our med school reunion in Atlanta a few weeks ago. Most of us were pro-Obama, with one very loud exception. After arguing back and forth for a while, one of my friends said, “In 5 years, we will be back at our next reunion, probably sitting at this same restaurant, regardless of whether McCain or Obama wins. It’s just not going to affect our lives all that much.”
Having said that, the US went from assholes of the universe to the coolest country in the world. The French think they’re more sophisticated than us because they tolerated their president getting divorced and remarring a hot Italian singer/model within 3 months, while we flipped out because Bill Clinton got a blow job from an intern? Well, we just elected a black man for president Pierre! By a landslide! We rule!