Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Elections from here

I attended the Republican countywide Election Day party last night. It was a good time for renewing acquaintances and keeping up to date on the results as they came in throughout the night. As much as I’m into politics, this was still my first Election Night party. When I had older siblings involved on the county level, I stayed home and didn't have much to do with it all. No matter. I knew a lot of the people last night and that made it worthwhile. People from choir, recent friends, old friends…no cousins though.

Earlier in the night, I happened upon one family of friends who are pretty active and one of the younger boys had brought along his set of army men. I'd better make it clear right away that I was always a big fan of army men. I never did have enough when I was that age. I would put them through so many battle scenarios it would make you dizzy... The only shortcoming was the inability to make everything happen at the same time--one man gets his sniper shot and then you pause to decide how many of your own men you think ought to be lost in this particular battle.

Well, Stuart (the boy's name) was sitting there with a much more advanced set than I ever had and it was just too much to leave alone. I sat down and we played out a few scenarios just for the fun of it. We didn't have the same taste for results--my results being much more sensible and realistic than his wacky forecasts. It was fun all the same--after about 20 minutes of that, I decided I'd better act like I was there for more orthodox reasons than playing with army men.

There was another interesting twist to the night, though. A couple of people came in from who-knows-where with note-pads, pens and signs hung around their necks reading "A liberal willing to listen." They stayed the whole night, welcoming anyone who wanted to talk to them to come and basically say what they wanted. I don't think it was a rough night for them... All they were doing was taking notes and such--no one was about to lambaste them for doing nothing and they were friendly enough. I got the opportunity to talk to one of them. I don't remember all that I said. I think I started with my reasons for disrespecting Kerry. I probably moved on to the Bush philosophy and it's goods and bads and roots and where I thought it should go. Nothing much came of it all. I thought they conducted themselves well enough. I just wish I knew where they were from.

Before I headed out, Justin, the county co-chair of the Rossi campaign, gave me the last of the Rossi shirts he had. He thanked me for helping out and such and I think I told him it was a good to work with him. Yeah, it was a good night--a lot more exciting perhaps than the dull colors I am using to paint it for you. Everyone was in high spirits for obvious reasons. As the night wrapped up, my old friend Josh Perry was good enough to remind me that we just watched history play out in front of us. He has a better perspective I think having worked more on the failed 96 campaigns—it was that much more exciting for him to see a victory like last night’s.

I think the best part of the whole night was getting to talk to Josh again. We decided we needed to get together more often--something we say just about every time we meet. Seriously though, I think this time we will make something happen--even if it only means going paintballing with him and the others like he mentioned. So yeah, I figured that this was going to be a political post considering it was about Election Night. Go figure!
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