As I write to meet the Beacon’s deadline, this year’s ballots have yet to be counted. As you read it, chances are, the results are in. Half of you are feeling much better about the direction of your city, county and country – the other half, not so much. And a few of you are downright apocalyptic about what may happen next.
No one can predict what the winning candidates will do; whether they’ll veer right or left; whether they’ll follow through on their campaign promises; whether they’ll directly affect your pocketbook or infiltrate your social conscience. Voters, now, can just sit back, hoping to shake off a nasty election hangover that, regardless of winners, tends to last a little while and tickle the gag reflex.
It’s been two years, really. That’s when the first presidential candidates announced they were running. That’s when the horserace coverage began, polls released and frontrunners announced. It only escalated through the primaries, so much, in fact, that sparsely populated Montana garnered national attention. It intensified as local elections reached full sprint, political signs posted and mailers dropped on our doorsteps.
To political junkies it was at once exhilarating and exhausting. Following up-to-the-minute trends, clicking through e-mails, watching the debates and tracking the polls is strangely addicting. It all matters. It does. But it can also throw our lives slightly off kilter, put us on edge, cause us to bite our tongues around those with whom we disagree. But soon those contentious dinner debates will once again resemble friendly potlucks, right?
Apparently, that is wishful thinking and a bit premature. Brandtrust, Inc., which touts itself as a research and strategic planning firm that helps organizations understand motivations and expectations, released a study last week focusing on “election depression.” Basically, if its findings are true, there are several of you struggling to get out of bed in the morning, much less turn on the lights.
“When the election is over and the proverbial day-after depression sets in for those who lost, it’s not merely a case of sour grapes,” Daryl Travis, CEO and founder of the company, said. “For many party loyalists, their greatest fear has come to pass.”
Public speaking as the number one fear of Americans has, apparently, been overtaken.
But it’s not just fear that is gripping roughly half the electorate, according to the study, but an eerie, almost prophetic, view that the opposing candidates will single-handedly destroy the country. Voters commented that, “It’s [the election] more like war;” that for the loser “there is a feeling of doomsday,” and “if you don’t win, hopefully you survive.”
Well, barring recounts, this election is over. The votes counted will certainly have a profound effect on our lives, those cast for local candidates carrying more weight than those for president. For voters wary of the results, it’s like the end of a hard-fought game, except that this one lasted several months, thus that empty feeling will last a little longer. But how bad is it, really? I doubt, for many, the end feels closer than it did a few days prior.
We Americans often forget that we have more in common than not and, collectively, have extremely short memories.
So, if you find someone shuttering their windows, encourage them to let the sun in. After all, in four years, we get to do it all over again.