Wearing a pantsuit to cast my vote for Hillary Clinton
There are three elections in my lifetime that still haunt me, and probably always will. I will only discuss them briefly, since I suspect most writers on this site will have some, if not all, of the same elections in their stories.
There are three elections in my lifetime that still haunt me, and probably always will. 1968, 2000, and 2016.
1968 – Nixon v. Humphrey. Anyone who has known me for more than about five minutes knows that I lived and breathed Gene McCarthy in 1968. I spent the summer in D.C. on the national campaign staff, and then drove out to Chicago with three other staffers for the Convention. It was clear to me that it should have been McCarthy running on the Democratic ticket. I would even have accepted Bobby Kennedy if he had lived, although I had never liked him, and in particular I was mad at him for waiting to run until after McCarthy had shown in New Hampshire that Johnson was beatable. We’ll never know how it would have turned out if he hadn’t been stopped by an assassin’s bullet. So it was Hubert Humphrey on the ballot, a former darling of the left who was tarnished by being LBJ’s vice president. And I couldn’t possibly stomach him after what he did in Chicago, aligned with Mayor Daley and unconcerned about the kids getting beaten up by the Chicago police. That fall there was a lot of talk about Humphrey being “the lesser of two evils,” but to my mind, there was no lesser evil. If I had been old enough to vote, I might have voted for Nixon, just to punish Humphrey. Glad that I was spared that fate by the fact that I was only seventeen on election day (and of course, the voting age was twenty-one back then anyway, not eighteen).
2000 – Bush v. Gore. So much has been written about what went wrong with this election. In my opinion, there were three separate problems that year. First of all, if Gore had let Clinton campaign for him, it probably wouldn’t have been so close. Bill was a superstar on the campaign trail, a proven vote-getter. But Al was such a prig, and he thought Bill was tainted after the Monica Lewinsky business. I am convinced that there were states that went for Bush that would have voted Democratic with some appearances by Clinton. Second, there was Ralph Nader running as a third party candidate, taking votes away that otherwise would have gone to Gore. If he hadn’t been on the ballot, the vast majority of his supporters would have voted for Gore. And finally, there was the mess in Florida, with the butterfly ballots and the hanging chads, people misreading the ballot or not pushing the little circles all the way out. And the Supreme Court ultimately determining the winner by refusing to let them continue the recount in Florida. A perfect storm of things going wrong.
2016 – Trump v. Clinton. This is too recent and too painful to write very much about. I just remember going to vote so proudly on election day, wearing my pantsuit, having my picture taken on what I thought would be the historic day when the first woman was elected President. And then the horror of Trump somehow winning the Electoral College even though he got three million fewer votes. I was watching the returns at a friend’s house and as we waited for the last three states that would give Trump the majority in the Electoral College, I kept saying “it’s not over yet, don’t give up.” And then it was over. I went home but couldn’t sleep. I haven’t slept very well for the past four years. Hoping that will change on Tuesday.
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Suzy
Unsurprisingly, we both picked 2000 as one of the truly lousy elections. And I certainly can’t disagree with your other two choices either — though, had I been old enough, I would have voted for Humphrey in 1968.
Let’s just hope that next week’s election won’t be added to this list. May we be able look back at this prompt at some later date and, remembering our angst at the time we wrote these stories, take a collective sigh of relief?
I certainly hope so!
Just as we all know about you and ’68, you know I was still in high school and not very political at that point in my life, so I’ve been very interested in, and admiring of reading about your political engagement in those years when I was still doing high school plays.
2000 was the first election nightmare I remember clearly. A few years later, David was in high school, doing a lot of photography. He came back to our home after a walk on the beach and asked if I’d heard of “Lawrence Tribe”? He had just encountered Tribe’s wife, sitting and writing on an overturned rowboat, while David tried to capture some good nature shots. I gave David a history lesson of Gore v. Bush with Tribe as one of Gore’s lawyers. Tribe’s wife had been very nice to David.
Four years ago remains raw for all of us. I write it too. I agree, let’s hope we can erase it next week and begin the healing; no civil war!
Interesting anecdote about Larry Tribe’s wife. Did she introduce herself to David that way? Since David is the same age as Sabrina, wouldn’t he have been in high school in 2000, and remember the history himself?
She introduced herself as Cricket Tribe and they talked about what she was writing. I think at some point she mentioned she was Larry Tribe’s wife, but out of context, David didn’t make the connection.
Right on, Suzy. You captured my three ghosts of elections past perfectly. Your Bush v Gore analysis included two factors I left out of mine — the Nader voters and not letting Bill campaign, although he was quite tainted in my eyes at that point.
Looking forward to reading yours, Laurie. Bill was never tainted in my eyes, I loved him then and still do. I thought the uproar over Lewinsky was ridiculous, and should have been just between Bill and Hillary to deal with. I remember saying when it hit the news that it was no big deal and would blow over in a few days – which just shows how out of step with the American public I am!
Yes Suzy, yet Trump’s transgressions, his pussy grabbing comments, payments to porn stars – those seem to blow over. I guess anyone with the slightest scrap of moral fiber is indeed out of step with how very deplorable are some segments of this country.
Thanx for the ghostly election recap Suzy. On election day 2016 I went to vote at my local Manhattan polling place, a public school on E 88th St, and by chance my friend TK was on line in front of me. She and I started to dance and the whole jubilant line started cheering and yelling Hillary, Hillary.
And then we all went home to watch the returns.
The next day the mood in the streets was somber. I got on the crosstown bus and happened to catch the eye of the woman sitting opposite me, a stranger. We held each other’s gaze, and without a word we both opened our palms in supplication.
Yes, that story of dancing on Tuesday and being somber on Wednesday is all too familiar. This time around we will be frightened on Tuesday. Let’s hope we will be dancing on Wednesday.
Trying to trust my hope, not my fear!
Great capsulizing of these elections, Suzy. I agree that Bill Clinton was so underutilized in the Bush v Gore campaign and wish Obama would have been more involved in this current one. We can only wait and see now.
I was annoyed with Al at the time for taking that attitude toward Bill, and told anyone who would listen that he was making a big mistake. Agree with you about Obama. I thought he should have done more for Hillary too.
Look at you rockin’ your pantsuit, Suzy, and what a great story! As I’ve not been anywhere near as politically involved as you, still, I do remember a fuzzy awareness and feeling many of the same things you describe relative to 1968 and 2000. Not having the political acuity to express them, I really appreciate your recap.
Thanks, Barb. Looking at that picture makes me sad, because I was SO happy at that moment, before everything came crashing down.
Your comments about Ralph Nader in the 2000 election are the same as mine. To this day, he still says that he had no effect on the Florida vote. I guess he is still a little boy, because real men and women admit their mistakes.
I’m now hunkered down in NW Connecticut a few miles south of Ralph Nader’s hometown Winsted. Driving through Winsted I always think of my leftie uncle Stevie who in 2000 insisted on voting for Nader on principle, despite my cousin’s pleas, “Dad, think of the Supreme Court.”
I resonate to most of what you wrote about each of these three elections, with one exception. Gore lost in 2000 because the SCOTUS stopped the vote count but also bc he couldn’t win his home state of TN–if he had, he wouldn’t have needed FL. Like Dana’s Uncle Stevie, I was an enthusiastic Nader voter. My vote didn’t affect the Electoral outcome (voting in MA) or the eventual horrible Supreme Court nominations from GWB, and neither did Stevie’s vote in Connecticut.
If we can get “Ranked Choice voting” which is on the ballot in a referendum here in the Bay State right now, then people will be able to vote for a candidate they believe in as #1 and put someone like a Gore or Biden as the “best of the rest” as #2. Then third-parties wouldn’t siphon off votes from the mainstream–and meanwhile third parties will build up their support until they ARE the mainstream.
That’s a good point about Tennessee, Dale. It goes along with my premise of his mistake in not using Clinton. If Clinton had gotten Arkansas to go for Gore, even with a measly 6 electoral votes, he wouldn’t have needed Florida.
Interesting that Ranked Choice voting is on the ballot in Massachusetts. If it passes there and seems to work well, maybe other states will try it too.
Aren’t our memories amazing? You captured those three elections so clearly and succinctly. In the 1968 election, I was too far Left and doctrinaire to vote for any, either, and all candidates. I was on the road doing antiwar plays with a political theater company and consorting with a suspicious cadre of anti-war Vietnam veterans and the more radical faction of SDS who “collaborated” in booking most of that theater tour. I wasn’t gonna vote for no stinkin’ President. I wonder what I would think about myself today, if I heard my position. I hope I would understand.
In 2000, I recall two added jaw-clenching chapters. First, Katherine Harris, who was Florida’s Secretary of State, and therefore in charge of the Florida elections. She was also, significantly, Jeb Bush’s lover or at least friend with benefits.
Second, the 2000 election was the first time in my experience that the Supreme Court interceded in an election, resulting in one of the most controversial Supreme Court decisions in American history. And surprise, surprise! The court divided along ideological lines. Conservatives backed Bush and the liberals backed Gore. Duh. Here’s hoping we aren’t there again.
How interesting about Katherine Harris, I had no idea! Was it common knowledge at the time? We can only hope that this election doesn’t get to the Supreme Court, because we know that they will decide based on party, not on the law.
I don’t think it was common knowledge and I couldn’t find any mainstream coverage of it, but the Bushes were very powerful right about then. A little difficult to imagine Harris with Jeb in terms of um…”animal attraction,” but maybe they had a mutual trans-action rather than a mutual attr-action. Go figure.
If it does get to the Supreme Court, I doubt it will be about hanging chads. So far (right now) most media opinions in the MSNBC domain claim there will be few grounds for legal consideration that will get that far, but one never knows.