The morning after the election, I woke up feeling calm. It was over. It was time to let go of the anxiety, and move forward. Thankfully, we were going to be able to just move forward, instead of enduring 4 years of Romney before getting another chance.
My thoughts kept returning to 2004, and realizing that this time, we were on the other side. Many of you probably have similar memories to the ones I have of the Bush/Kerry election. The polls said that Bush would win, but they were close. We didn't trust the polls. We talked about how the polls didn't reach people who relied on cellphones, and since many of us rely on cellphones, there would be lots of Democrats uncounted in the polls. We believed that the youth vote would turn out in droves, and would make up the difference. We thought that the Bush supporters weren't as enthusiastic as we were, and they would stay home. Maybe Kerry wasn't the perfect candidate, but Bush was so bad, we didn't think it would really matter.
And so, despite knowing better on some level, we really thought Kerry would win. It felt like a punch to the stomach when he did not. It felt impossible. Bush won in 2000 by the slimmest of margins, and due to legal gymnastics. 2004 was worse, because it hurt. It hurt to realize that it was no accident. After 4 years of President Bush, the majority of America actually went out and voted for him again. It seemed impossible, but it was reality. America chose Bush.
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