My interest in politics started at the tender ago of eight, brought about by the Harbinger of Doom who wore pink ribbons in her blonde pigtails.
In 1980 I was in Mrs. Clark’s third grade class at University Avenue elementary in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. So was Kari Christ, aka the Harbinger of Doom. I don’t know what brought it on, or why she told me this, but one day Kari turned in her desk her pink ribbons matching her Garanimals and told me that if Ronald Regan became president we were all going to die.
I promptly lost my eight-year-old shit and became obsessed with the election. I learned all that I could glean from the Minneapolis Star (we got the evening paper, I am not sure why) and right then decided that Jimmy Carter was my man.
Election night I begged my parents to let me watch the returns, and because they were apolitical they said no. But they did let me sit at the kitchen table with a tiny black and white television and watch them by myself. I was frantic. I distinctly remember looking at my own reflection in the sliding glass door that led to the deck and shaking my head. I couldn’t believe I was gonna die before I turned ten. That sucked.
The repercussions of that election have followed me throughout my life. It was that election and the Cold War that led me to my first bouts with insomnia. My parents spent many late nights trying to convince me that Regan would not push the button and we were not all going to die. My nuclear war phobia was so great that when “The Day After” appeared on TV it was the first time my parents ever censored what we watched. They watched it because it was a big deal at the time while Sister #2 and I spent the evening in my bedroom watching the Minnesota North Stars play the Detroit Red Wings (at least I think it was Detroit, it might have been Chicago).
It was that election that made me vow to my eight-year-old self that if I ever lived long enough to vote I would never vote for a Republican because they were out to start wars. I was a smart kid.
You bring back memories. That election was the first time I ever voted (as a newly-minted 18-year-old), and I’m a little embarrassed to say that not only did I vote for John B. Anderson, I volunteered at the campaign office. I guess I’ve always had a soft spot for third parties.
Someone posted a “Stop Ray-Gun” sign in my dorm. There was definitely a sense of fear and dread when the election results were in.
I’ve voted for the Democrat in every election since then, though.
I too was convinced Regan was going to kill us all. But I knew I wasn’t going to die in the blast, instead (and this too after watching “The Day After”) I felt I was going to die from radiation poisoning, after seeing my Mom die.
My Dad is blind, so at a young age it was my job to go into the voting booth with him and flick the switch for whatever candidate he chose. He was all for re-electing Regan in 1984. However, I knew better. And instead of flicking the Regan switch, I voted for Mondale. My Dad never knew the difference.
FFJ – i’m not sure but i think you just copped to committing some kind of voter fraud. Nice! 😀
OK,”The Day After” was shown on 11/20/1983, and that night the Minnesota North Stars were indeed playing the Chicago Blackhawks. (They won, 4-3).
UH, did you doubt me?
No, not at all. I just enjoy tracking down that kind of stuff. Every day I’m fascinated by what’s available on the Web.
If I would have thought of it, I would have double checked who they were playing.
I became a Democrat because my father was a diehard Republican. He told me that Dems were all tree-hugging, liberal whiners and that Republicans were all about The People. (He said it just like that – caps and everything.) I didn’t see what was wrong with hugging trees – they supplied our oxygen! We should hug them.
During the last election he was alive for, he told me I was right. Democrats might have been a little too liberal (for his tastes), but they were interested in the “right” things.