I Believe in Hope

My birthday is in early November and this year, as is sometimes the case, it’s on election day.  Truth be told, though I made a list of gifts I’d like to receive, I really have only have one birthday wish: lots of Democratic wins tonight.   Those wins will be especially sweet if they put more women in elected office.  I want a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.  I’d also like a blue Senate, though I realize that’s an uphill climb.  If Beto O’Rourke somehow manages to win in Texas, I’ll be ecstatic.  I’ll feel the same way if Phil Bredesen wins in Tennessee.  In New Jersey, I’m excited about Mikey Sherrill and Tom Malinowski.  I think there will be some exciting Democratic wins in governor’s races.  I have my eye on Andrew Gillum in Florida and Stacey Abrams in Georgia.  These candidates are just the tip of a blue wave.  So many of the Democrats on the ballot today are my sort of candidate.  Given the horrifying outcome in 2016 and the last two years and, I long to shed some tears of joy when deserving Democrats win tonight.

T and I are having a birthday celebration at home and we’ll watch election returns all evening.  I’ve made plans for some celebratory food because that’s what I do.  I did this for the 2016 election and still remember assembling a cheese tray and thinking about how exciting it would be when Hillary made her acceptance speech.  We all know how that turned out.  Tonight’s returns can’t reverse that history but they may help us to reverse course and signal a wave of voters who demand decency and kindness in their elected officials.  I’m hopeful for an outcome that at least puts the brakes on Trump’s ugly madness.  

In 1984, the year I turned 17, election day was also on my birthday.  I had worked for the Mondale/Ferraro campaign and in true teenaged idealist fashion, I believed they would win.  As Reagan rolled to a landslide re-election victory, the idealist in me remained alive.  She’s been around ever since.  The last two years have challenged that world view.  

I stand here today at the edge of the abyss, with hope on one side in the form of leaders like Beto O’Rourke and Stacey Abrams.  On the side is the racist, sexist, ugly rhetoric of Trump and the modern GOP.  It feels like the most important election of my lifetime.  I’m going to vote with the blue wave this morning.  It’s a vote for our better angels.  It’s a vote to begin to take back my nation.  It’s a vote for hope.