|
I remember the first time I felt the Sinking Feeling. It was when I was in high school and I heard that Ronald Reagan - a ridiculous b-movie actor - had been elected president. Although I was too young to fully understand the dire implications of this event, I still had a Sinking Feeling. It couldn't be good for my country when an actor was enlisted to be puppet spokesperson for The Man.
The second time I felt the Sinking Feeling was when George Bush the First was elected president. I couldn’t believe that Americans were that stupid. I mean, Ronald Reagan was a joke! He had been a disastrous president - he had run up the worst national debt in our history, his Iran-Contra scandal-ridden foreign policy was a joke, he was a total moron. He would surely go down in history as the Worst President Ever. And Americans were stupid enough to vote for his lackey in crime? The vice idiot? A wispy little shell of a man whom nobody I knew had a kind word for? Come on - this can't be happening!!!!
Then the Sinking Feeling went away for awhile. Clinton came into the White House and for awhile, everything was good. Okay, it wasn't PERFECT - "Don’t Ask, Don't Tell" really pissed me off and Clinton didn’t keep many of the promises he made - but it was wonderful to have an intelligent human being in the presidency and I could relax and enjoy my life. The nineties zoomed by and I pretty much stopped paying attention to politics. I didn't feel that I needed to - everything was in good hands.
Then came 2000 and the Sinking Feeling came back stronger than ever. The election was stolen from us by another moronic corporate/military puppet - this one even WORSE than Reagan! And to make matters worse, the Supreme Court sealed the deal by essentially saying that democracy would not be allowed in America. I remember following the saga every day - expecting that when all the votes were counted, Al Gore would be declared the rightful victor and my nice, stable, anxiety-free Clinton-era life could continue. When that court decision was handed down the hole in the pit of my stomach sank so deep, it made those other Sinking Feelings pale in comparison.
In 2004, the Sinking Feeling was the strongest it has ever been. When I woke up the Morning After and checked the election results to see that, yes, truly, the Worst President In History had been "re-selected" by my idiotic fellow Americans (assisted by DieBold), I was numb. The Sinking Feeling overwhelmed me. I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't work. I thought - this is it, this is the death of my country. It has been stolen from us. We have lost control. The Supreme Court is lost. What is left of our civil rights will be taken from us. The Religious Right has won. I remember talking to a clueless co-worker The Day After and she asked me what I thought about the election outcome. I told her, "It's the worst thing that has ever happened to this country. We are doomed. It's the death of the country. We will never recover." She was stunned by my response and simply replied, "Oh, okay, well, that's kinda dramatic..." Perhaps - but The Sinking Feeling will do that to you.
The last time I felt The Sinking Feeling was in September of this year. It was a week or so after McCain selected Palin, just after the Republican Convention, when the convention bounce was effecting the polls. My radio alarm clock woke me up and I heard a female newscaster say, "Polls show that Senator John McCain is now leading Barack Obama by several points..." With those words, The Sinking Feelilng was back. I felt that same numb dread take me over and I immediately went to the computer to check Democratic Underground - my safe haven of sanity since 2003. Many of us were panicking and in shock - how could it be that those two numbskulls could be leading our intelligent, honest, charismatic candidate??? I remember it was around this time that the wonderful, "Everyone Chill The Fuck Out - I Got This" image of Barack started making the rounds here. Some of our wiser members reminded those of us easy to panic that Barack was running the tightest campaign in history, he knew what he was doing, and after September 11th, he'd kick the campaign attacks into full gear and the polls would shift into our favor again.
Thankfully, the winds shifted within a few days, and The Sinking Feeling was gone. By the time election day rolled around, I was actually feeling really confident and sedate. At least, until one moment last night when I thought I saw a flash on CNN's screen in Grant Park that said that Wisconsin was going in favor of McCain. I'm not sure if it was super early returns or if I misread the screen, but I thought, wait, is this all going to disintegrate on us???? The American people CAN'T be that stupid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But then I thought of Reagan - they were stupid enough to elect him. And I thought of Bush I - they were stupid enough to elect him. And I thought of Bush II - they were stupid enough to elect him TWICE! "It's happening again," I thought! "It's happening again!!!"
Then, a few minutes later, they projected some states for Barack and I realized that he was at 200 electoral votes already, and the west coast hadn't even been counted yet. It's not going to happen again. NOT THIS TIME!!!! And when they finally announced that Barack Obama had been elected President of the United States of America, I jumped for joy, I screamed, I pumped my fist into the air, I hugged my friends, and I yelled, "WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE NIGHTMARE IS OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Goodbye Sinking Feeling. I hope we don't meet again for a long, long, long time!
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(529 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
