How to Understand the Election Results

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about college students reacting to the election, which has made me think about my own college days, which coincided with the 2008 presidential election. This was a pretty happy time for me. No one I knew was terribly interested in electoral politics. A lot of people I knew were terribly interested in Donald Barthelme and Eric Rohmer. I was living in Hyde Park, Chicago, about eight blocks from Obama family hearth when Barack won the presidency. Pretty much the epicenter of Obamamania. (The house itself was blocked of by barricades and guarded 24/7, but members of a nearby synagogue were allowed to pass through on their way to Temple, and perhaps get an extra-strong whiff of Hope We Could Believe In.) And even then I didn’t feel that it was very important to take a strong interest in electoral affairs—nor did I feel it was important where I was, or where I was perceived to be, on the left-right political spectrum. I remember a university friend who suspected me of holding strange views and who approached me to tell me (in retrospect, this was—I am being earnest here—an act of kindness and grace almost unthinkable today) that it was OK if I was voting for McCain; it wouldn’t affect our friendship at all. (I told her I didn’t plan to vote, didn’t.)