Two Days Before the Day After (the Election)

The Sunday before last, at a little past noon, I got the brilliant idea of driving out to the nearby Millhopper branch of my Alachua County public library system, where I knew they were holding early voting for tomorrow's election.  I was going to stand at the entrance with my camera and photograph the plethora of different campaign signs planted there...and call it the "2016 Election Sign Garden".  Alas, when I arrived, though, two police cars were there flashing their blue lights and a number of people were holding campaign signs and waving at passers-by, effectively messing up my "garden"...so I left without taking a pic.  Fast forward to yesterday afternoon at the same location...I had a library book due and I was looking for another to check out, but I was wary of encountering early voting congestion there.  No need to have worried: early voting had ended, along with every single campaign sign that had been planted there.  Well, my election garden was gone, but I enjoyed the complete lack of any reminder of this horrendous, discouraging campaign season...

With an acknowledging nod to the title of one of my favorite South Park episodes, today marks "two days before the day after the election".  Although Wednesday is my ultimate goal, with the nasty, awful campaigning hopefully finally placed behind us, I have to recognize today...the "day before"...as the last complete day of the campaign.  For as soon as the polls close tomorrow evening...at least here in Florida...I am going to celebrate, regardless which candidates end up winning the various races.  I will be at work when the results of the presidential race begin to filter through the media and, as was the case in 2012, will find out who won through hearsay from my co-workers...I myself will instead be listening to David Bowie, Beck, or an audio-book on my mp3 player...

Melissa and I plan to go vote at our local precinct tomorrow morning.  Personally, I don't like voting early, although if it suits others then the more power to them.  I feel a sense of civic pride that I am a responsible participant in my country's representative democracy when I go to my polling place on election day.  And I feel a sense of camaraderie with others who are also there to vote, whether they go along with my choices or not.  Voting is a celebration of the great freedom we have in America to choose our leaders...but I'm afraid that many of us refuse to accept the results unless their preferred candidate wins.  Whoever wins the Presidency will be my president and the winners of the other races will represent me in their future positions, whether or not I voted for them...this is an essential element of democracy that every citizen should understand.  It's too bad that so many will not recognize this and that, whoever wins, a substantial portion of the population will be in a state of near-rebellion, refusing to accept their newly-elected leader as legitimate.  You can openly express your opposition to the new president's policies and actions and campaign for his or her defeat in the next election...but somewhere along the line you need to agree that this individual is your duly elected president, and with that agreement comes the expectation of respect for that office...even if you dislike the person occupying it...