I’m a very talented mind reader. I know what pretty much everyone in America is thinking today: “Thank God it’s Over.”
Tomorrow the yard signs come down, and the primetime commercials return to promoting a variety of fast food treats and the coming holiday spending season.
In our democracy, there are few restrictions on who may run for office. Felons and foreign-born citizens are out, and you must be of a certain age to put your hat in the ring, but the vast majority of the population is quite eligible to get in there and mudsling with the best of them.
I ran for Vice-President of my 9th grade class. Although my speech talked specifically of how I could make our school better, I didn’t get the belly laughs the other candidate got, and I went down in mortifying defeat, vowing to never put myself in that position again.
“Never again” lasted until the end of my junior year, when I ran for Letterwomen President. That time I won, and my term was the length of my senior year.
So I’ve won, and I’ve lost, and of course, based on my limited experience, winning is far better. Although, in hindsight, Letterwomen President didn’t pay anything, and there was always lots and lots of work to do hosting Homecoming and such, and whenever something went wrong, well, naturally I found myself in the line of fire.
So why does anybody run for office? Fame? Fortune? (Not hardly.) Is it the true desire to make the world a better place, according to their party’s standards, or just to throw the other guys out?
I’ll not spend time pondering it further. I’ll just be grateful we’ve got a reprieve for another few years and spend some time thoroughly enjoying K-Mart’s Layaway Commercials.