tldr; i realized how important this election was and learned some shit
In 2020 I've learned so much...
About who I am. What I do and don't like. What my goals are. What makes me happy.
I've also been learning so much about American politics. It didn't really hit me until the day of the election and these few days following (It's November 5th now, and election day was the 3rd). As of 10:16pm, Biden only needs 6 more electoral college votes to win the presidency, while Trump needs 56 - and it's been this way for almost 2 full days now. Biden has always been in the lead for popular vote too. Trump is calling to stop counting votes, filing lawsuits, and has already claimed that he's won. Biden is just tweeting things along the lines of 'just chill, it'll be fine, mail-in ballots are being counted, just be patient'. This shit is as historic as it gets.
What I've learned about myself is probably enough for a whole series of posts, so I'll focus on the election stuff. I'm Canadian (if you didn't catch that by now) but I lived in Colorado for 5 of the most formative years of my life, and my two best friends (read: soulmates) live there still, but we're in constant contact. As per a meme I saw this week, I've dubbed myself their personal support Canadian.
What's (maybe not) surprising is that they only have a slightly better understanding of American politics and how the election works than I do. Tuesday night I got home after work around 10pm and found the first tv coverage I could find (given my lack of satellite or cable), and joined in on my friends' snapchat spam, asking questions at the same time them and laughing at the things we were hearing and generally being absolutely shocked at how close it was already (we were sure it would be totally one-sided, but we didn't know which). I cracked open a cider and drank alongside them until it was around 2am my time (midnight their time).
One of my friends has a brother who just got accepted into law school, and previously had the life goal of running for president someday. He's younger than the three of us, but so so much smarter, and knows (what seems like) everything there is to know about politics. I learned through him, my two friends, a billion google searches, and a cheeky youtube video all about the electoral college and why those votes determine the president instead of the popular vote (even though I know why, I still just don't understand why - tradition I guess?), why and how each state gets x amount of electoral votes, what a coup is, and what it means to be a swing state or how a state could flip. I may have been at school in the states for 5 years, but I don't remember any of this coming up - maybe I was just 12-16 years old and didn't care.
I'm not about to explain all that stuff to you (but you should definitely learn about it!), I just thought it was nuts how much information my brain has retained over the last 70-something hours.
The thing that stood out the most, that actually prompted this post, is the moment that I realized Kamala Harris is in this just as much as Biden, and if they win, she'll be: The first woman VP.
The first black VP.
AND the first black woman VP.
It hit me when I was watching a quick live video they did where Biden was acknowledging the numbers on Wednesday evening but not saying that he's won, just that he's comfortable with where the numbers are and it's looking good. She was standing off to the side, physical distancing and a mask and all that, blah blah blah covid blah. I just looked at her while she was nodding at his prose, and it hit me. This. Is. Fucking. Massive. I love this for her. For history. I knew she was a bigger deal before it was narrowed down to just Biden and Trump, but Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was also big news as well (AOC pls be my friend, you're so cool)...
I'm not gonna lie... once I had that realization, I teared up. Which was weird. I'm not usually like that... but you bet I sucked those tears back in. My mom was watching beside me and I wasn't about to get made fun of for the rest of my life because I cried over the election. (All in good fun but I gotta protect my ego you know?)
I mentioned to my friends that it's weird how overlooked this portion of the election is - that it's solely about the men (because obviously, but still), and they think it's just that nobody wants to get their hopes up too far. We are living in 2020 after all. The year of a global pandemic, everything ever has been cancelled, so many people have died, everything has changed, and 2020 Bingo is still heating up, even in November.
This is a blog post if I ever read one, damn. Didn't think I'd go off this much but here we are. It's 10:40pm and nothing has changed in the polls yet. Here's to hoping for a better future for America. xx
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