By snoadmin
It’s nearly impossible to predict how today’s college voters will recollect this election 30 to 40 years in the future, no matter how historically significant it is now.
The anticipation of this election has reached a fever pitch, with long lines to the polls reported across the country yesterday.
America’s first black presidential candidate to make it to the wire, the possibility of a first woman president — in case John McCain wins and something prohibits him from completing his term, Sarah Palin would take over — and the oldest person to ever seek a first term as commander in chief are all dishes on the 2008 national table.
Will we remember how bad the economy sucked, that we had two wars going at the same time, or that Starbucks offered us a free cup of coffee if we already voted?
True, the current race has many unprecedented factors that should provide the memories of a lifetime, but how accurate will those memories be further down life’s long road?
Los Angeles oldies radio station K-EARTH 101 invited listeners to call in yesterday to tell when they first voted and who they voted for.
Most callers were emphatic about their recollections of when they lost their voting virginity, but many were miles away from accuracy.
One caller swore she was 19 years old when she voted for Richard Nixon in the 1969 presidential election. It’s obvious the woman must have ingested too much of some sort of botanical plant during the “Summer of Love.”
Not only wasn’t 1969 an election year — must be divisible by four — but Nixon took the oath of office for his first term in January of that year. To top if off, she would have been too young. Until the age was lowered to 18 in 1972, voters had to be 21.
Another caller testified she voted for Jimmy Carter in 1984, although he had given up presidential aspirations when Ronald Reagan stomped him like a liberal at a conservative convention in 1980.
Others still, had rather faulty recall, with one swearing he had opted for John F. Kennedy in 1964. That would have been spooky considering it was a year after JFK was assassinated. Another attested that he had chosen Ronald Reagan as his favorite in 1988, even though the Republican ticket featured George H.W. Bush that year. Reagan termed out in ’88. Not to be mean, but is it possible Reagan’s Alzheimer’s Disease was contagious?
Perhaps in a quarter of a century blacks, women and geezers won’t be the anomalies they are now for the highest seat in the land. Maybe we’ll be able to do a radio call-in and actually know who we voted for and when.
As the years pass, our hair grays and our bodies start making noises we’ve never heard, it’s possible most of the 2008 election will be a blip on our mental map or a page in our children’s civics books.
As of yesterday, though, our memories were fresh and voting was exciting on both sides of the aisle.
It won’t matter how much we remember when we’re old farts. What will matter is that we made history.