I voted for the first time in 1968. 48 years ago, and I haven’t missed voting in a Presidential election since. To tell the truth, I didn’t know who to vote for, so I left my choices blank on the ballot, but I voted for all the Idahoans on it, including Frank Church. I was proud to vote for Church.
I didn’t come from a Democratic family; my parents were always independents and voted for whoever they thought would be the best choice, with no regard to political party. Neither did I, for over half of my voting life. They always voted for a candidate from the two largest parties, but I didn’t. There were a couple of times when I voted for an independent, and there were as many times when I voted for a Republican as a Democrat. But I never left a blank again, ever.
I don’t think I’m unusual for the folks of my generation. When we were young adults, America was a land that was still chock full of optimism, and we most all tended to believe the times we grew up in would continue for the rest of our lives.
But Viet Nam changed all that forever. Lots of us, the ones whose blood was spilled in that war, lost that universal optimism during the many years of that conflict. And the following decades also destroyed more of our optimism as we struggled through repeated recessions, changing social morés, and America’s inability to control as much of the world as we believed we had.
We all wanted easy solutions to events that often offered no solutions at all. Those events had a way of hammering us hard, further decaying our beliefs that our future would be ever brighter and more promising. That next year would be any better than this year. Next year was often worse, and then worse the year after.
In the end, things pretty much split us in half. Some of us retreated back to our youth nostalgically, believing that if we went back, there was some way to make the good times repeat themselves back there. All we had to do was find it.
Others of us, me included, didn’t see any sign of the past being repeated in the present, so we just dug in and weathered the storms. I still remember how completely defeated I felt after voting in 1972. I voted for Nixon in 1968 because I thought that Johnson had dragged us into Viet Nam. I could have avoided the draft, and I did; I enlisted instead, against the wishes of my parents and family. Partly because I was a patriot then, and remain one now, and because I was growing bored of my life in a small town in a remote state.
That was the larger part of it. I joined the Navy to see the world, and by God, the Navy allowed me to see a lot more of it than I ever envisioned. By sheer luck of the draw, I got a ship that sailed around all of the South American continent, and also sailed around most of Africa as well. And then, later on, I got to visit most of the Mediterranean, too. And even New York City for free. I crossed the equator over 88 times, and never came close to the Gulf of Tonkin. Never went through a winter in four years, but I experienced many summers, springs, and autumns. I got 8 of those seasons.
But a veteran, no matter how lucky, knows the sufferings of his brothers in arms. After I was discharged, I got some more lucky breaks, but I became very pessimistic after George McGovern was whipped so badly. Although I voted for Nixon in 68, by 1972, I saw him as a villain, a paranoid who was perpetuating the war for his own reasons when he had the ability to stop it.
My satisfaction was huge when Nixon resigned. But it wasn’t enough to stop me from voting for Reagan after throwing away my vote in 1976 for an independent whose name I can no longer even remember. After that, I realized why my parents never wasted their votes on independents. But I did not respect Carter at all, so in 1980, I voted for Reagan.
By then, I was married, had 3 children, one a baby, and was operating my own small business back home. I opened it in 1973, and despite all the troubles of the Nixon and Carter years, had managed to grow it to the point that I needed a new, larger shop. Since I couldn’t find one to rent that suited, I risked everything I owned to build a new one over the winter of 1979-1980, and managed to keep all the business that was patient with me through the months of construction. 1980 started out with a bang, and remained strong all year. Things were good and looking to be better.
I didn’t know then that Idaho is always slow to get hit when recession begins, and then is even slower to recover. By mid-1980, meeting the big mortgage I took became hard. And got harder every year from then on until 1987, when the Idaho recession finally lifted at last. 1987 was my best year ever until a major job I took, one that occupied all my work for much of the year, went bankrupt on me before I was fully paid. Leaving me in a deeper hole than that I had finally crawled out of. I sold the property and closed the shop in March, 1988, and never voted for another Republican presidential candidate again.
I had to wait a very long time for Barack Obama. In fact, I liked Joe Biden better, until the night I attended my first (and only, so far) Democratic caucus that February, a bitter cold night on a Tuesday. I arrived fairly early to a meeting room with a capacity of 700 people. And then, for the next 2 ½ hours, I watched that room fill up with folks younger than me. Married. With babies in their arms. I gave up my seat to one young mother, and asked her who she was going to vote for. She said “Barack Obama”. They were all there to vote for him, over 1100 in all, stuffing into that big room. When the doors were finally locked, there was still a very long line of them outside, waiting their turn to climb the stairs to get in. All of them voted for Obama, or wanted to, when some were locked out
And I knew nothing at all about him, but if so many were willing to turn out, in a small town that is as conservative as any in Idaho, their numbers convinced me right then that Obama would win. I voted for him for the very first time then, and voted for him ever afterward.
He never let me down. I never expected him to even run for re-election after his first win. I honestly didn’t believe that America would elect a black liberal man twice, at least at first. My confidence grew, though. I knew he’d win in 2012.
But tonight, I was never prouder of him as my President. In his last State of the Nation speech, I saw the guy I so happily voted for in 2008 and 2012 once again using his full powers, in full display of his leadership abilities, and with his full optimism and confidence that America’s greatest century lies ahead of us, not back in the 20th century past.
He challenged us all to be a mature nation, as capable of our our leadership in all things as ever we were, while using our power in a mature way, one that age and wisdom brings. Leadership by more than only example, more than the use of brute force, more than by competitive economic domination, and more than trying to repeat our past, when we were a more adolescent and less wise nation.
As always, I admired Obama’s way of commanding the long game instead of reacting to the last play of the moment. The man does not dwell in the past. He lives in the present and always looks forward. I hope we all follow his example; if anything, 2016 is a more critical year for the USA than 2008, because 2016 will set our immediate course for our future. I hope we can try to be as wise as our leader.
…and I wish I could have another chance to vote for him again. I expect to never see a leader like him in the rest of my lifetime.