Election Day Blues

I’m an old-school, vote-on-Election-Day type of guy, and today I’m proud to be casting my ballot for Kamala Harris. Her ideas and enthusiasm feel focused and fresh — the perfect candidate to turn the page on the dusty old playbook.
My kids see her and feel hopeful for the future. She laughs and dreams and dances — and rubs shoulders with our favorite artists and rock stars who proudly support her, too. She feels like a part of the America that the entire world admires and envies.
On the other side, the tone is painstakingly tired and turbulent — and while we’ve all heard it for nearly a decade, it just seems even more desperate and delusional these days.
Dark as it is, I often find myself laughing as he pathetically “weaves” through an utterly meaningless and listless passage during a self-aggrandizing speech — a spray tanned, out-of-shape reality TV personality who hawks Bibles and watches and gold sneakers, has 34 felony convictions and is clinging to the prospect that he’ll get back into the White House where his top priority will be to pardon himself and then attack his enemies because he’s a small man with nothing else to offer.
But then I stop laughing and remind myself that it’s no joke. Somehow nearly half of America has either bought into the grift or they’ve just decided that their party is more important than their country. I’m not sure which is worse.
Thankfully for me, when I talk to the kids I point out that the Harris/Walz agenda is working to build the middle class, to strengthen healthcare, to restore reproductive freedom, to support minorities and immigrants and the rights of entire groups of people who the other side tries to silence or ignore. They believe climate change is real and unions should be strong and public education is important and forward thinking will continue to make us better.
And tonight, or tomorrow, or whenever we figure out who the next president will be — regardless of the outcome — I will rest easy knowing that the oval I filled in on my ballot today was for the good guys. And I’ll feel proud & strong knowing that my vote was for a better future for the generations to come.