Crying about the Election

“Why are you crying?” her mother asked 4 year old Abigael Evans this week.

“I’m tired of Bronco Bamma and Mitt Romaney,” she said between sobs. 

Nearly nine and a half million people have watched the 22 second video her mother made of Abby’s tears and Mom’s attempts to reassure her that the election is next week, it will be over soon.  Turns out Abby had heard one too many election reports on National Public Radio and just lost it.

I’m writing this column before Election Day.  I’m also close to tears.  Hopefully I won’t be crying afterwards.

We cry because we are sad, tired, hurt, lost.  In 12-step programs we talk about HALT, hungry, angry, lonely, tired – dangerous times, trigger times, crying times.  Time to halt, ask for help.  The American electorate is ready to HALT all this electioneering.  We’re hungry for something besides false advertisements, tired of paranoid whipped up fears, angry about manufactured conspiracies.  An angry person is often a lonely person.  There is so much anger in American these days, on all sides of the political spectrum, name calling, labeling, lies.  I’m especially angry about the one billion dollars spent on this election, more than on any previous one. How many hungry, poor, lonely, homeless crying kids could that have fed?

A later photo shows a much happier Abby sporting a pin she received from NPR.  When the radio execs saw the crying video, they wrote to apologize, saying they too were tired of the election, tired to tears.

We’re all tearfully tired of it.

By the time you read this, if it’s Tuesday night, we will hopefully know who is the next President of the United States, how many Republican and Democratic representatives were elected and whether one party has control of the House or Senate.

Plus whether Dave Potter or Mark Del Piero won in Monterey. (BTW, I ended up voting for Dave; I just can’t vote for a Republican.  Sort of like The Economist’s endorsement of Obama – I chose the devil I already know.)

I say “hopefully we will know” because already there are predictions of a rerun of 2000, contested elections, allegations of voter fraud, a split between the popular vote and the electoral college vote, and another trip through the courts to another nightmare of so-called democracy by a stacked Supreme Court.

One commenter wrote about Abby’s tears: I don't think that the little girl is crying because of the election coverage. She is crying because no matter which side wins, her generation is basically screwed. The United States Economy has been little more than a massive Ponzi scheme for decades and it will crash and burn in her life time.

School often teach civics by holding mock elections, even in elementary schools, kids holding debates, solemnly casting ballots.  It turns out young people mostly vote Democratic.  Likewise, this year and most years, polls show that women are overwhelmingly Democratic voters. 

Maybe women and children vote Democrat because they cry more easily.  They can cry for the 47% whom Romney scorns.  They can cry for the raped woman who doesn’t accept, as several Republican candidates do, that God willed her attack and pregnancy.  They can cry for the victims of Superstorm Sandy and cry out that government should provide disaster relief.  Mr. Flip Flop No Tears Romney says the private sector should take care of storm victims, that he would cut funds for FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  That is, he said that during the debates.  But last week he said of course he supports FEMA.  I bet he can turn his tears on and off too.

I knew a woman minister who wrote her dissertation on women and tears.  She tried to get a grant from Kimberly Clark, the leading maker of Kleenex, arguing that women were their best customers.  They turned her down.  (That’s the private sector for you, so sympathetic.)  But she went on to write, among others things, that women often cry when what they are really feeling is anger.  And conversely men often get mad when deep down they are really sad, and should HALT, and have a good cry.  Maybe all those angry white male Republicans need to use their tear ducts, rather than lies and fists and guns.

I imagine all America will be crying Tuesday night, tears of rage, or tears of relief.  Then, like the Eastern seaboard, we’ll have to wipe our eyes, roll up our sleeves, and mop up the mess.

Copyright © 2012 Deborah Streeter