Discussion Thread: Election Anxiety

This election is...getting to me.

Yesterday, Shaker GoldFishy and I were discussing by email how anxious we both are about this election, how emotionally invested we both are. I wrote to him:

This election feels like a referendum on every aspect of social justice to me: Are racists going to win the day and vote out our first African American president, not on his policies but his personhood? Are homophobes going to win the day and vote against marriage equality, in some or all of the places in which civil rights have been put to a vote? Are disablists/classists going to win the day and vote for Romney in the hope of overturning Obamacare and other key parts of the social safety net? Are misogynists going to win the day and vote to deny women agency and access to reproductive healthcare? Etc.

I would say it keeps me up at night, but instead it invades my dreams. I dream about meeting Mitt Romney and begging him not to repeal Obamacare. I dream about meeting President Obama and begging him not to abandon talking about women's and gay rights after the election. It is fitful sleep, and even in my dreams they are not receptive to my pleas.

Last night, I dreamt (for what felt like the whole night, as dreams sometimes do) that it was Election Day, and I kept calling Deeky to see how the marriage equality vote was going in Maryland (and, because it was a dream, he knew), and calling GoldFishy to see how it was going in Minnesota. Up, down, up, down. The vote total kept shifting back and forth in favor and against.

I woke up feeling panicked, my hands clenched into desperate fists.

As much as I can't wait for this election to be over, the day after is going to be rough, because we're not going to win the day across the board. I just hope we manage to eke out a few victories.

But then there's the day after, and the day after... This is the third presidential election and fifth national election I've now covered, and, well, I don't normally feel this anxious about an election. It's a lot of different things, but I feel like I'm holding something slippery in my hands, and it's about to slide from my grasp and fall away.

Anyway. Many of my friends are anxious about this election, too, whether because they're stressed about possible voter disenfranchisement, or reliving some fucked-up nightmare reminiscent of 2000, or just straight-up electoral losses. So I thought maybe we could all use a thread to talk about how we're feeling.

Have at it.