On Politics and My Father - 11/4/08

Elections tend to produce a feeling of nostalgia in me. Growing up as the daughter of a political scientist, election season was exciting and election night always a holiday. I remember the overpowering joy of speeding on my bicycle through the array of Ohio fall colors and political signs mixed together. Also mixed together in my mind are memories of political booths at fairs and festivals, fundraisers, sausage and chicken paprikash dinners and Democratic Party Headquarters on the nights of Dukakis’s slaughter, Clinton’s first win and John Kerry’s convention speech.

Upon retirement, my dad went to work with vigor on many of the political causes he had championed all his life. He worked very hard for Kerry four years ago. In an email to me a week before that election, he told me that the excitement and ground game of the campaign was like nothing he had ever seen before and was hopeful that a high turnout would put them over the top.

At Christmas in 2006, my dad was still glowing over the results of the midterm elections. In his car, papered over in political bumper stickers (much to the mortification of my Republican stepmother), my dad regaled me with stories of Ohio’s new progressive Senator, Sherrod Brown and read aloud articles from the magazine the Progressive as I drove from Toledo to Columbus. At the time, I complained to my friends that it seemed I’d never been able to have a real conversation with my dad. All we had ever been able to talk about was politics.

Almost two years later, I would give anything to have that type of conversation with my father again, the kind of conversation where he could share with me his passions and his joy in what he holds dear in the world. Now I know that my father’s declining ability to remember things has finally been classified as Alzheimer’s, and the biggest wakeup call for me is that he has not been involved in this campaign. Given his assessment of the Kerry campaign, I wondered what he would say if he were involved for Obama. Last week, Obama HQ called him to see if he would make phone calls on Saturday. He was excited to be of use, and drove off that afternoon. About an hour after he should have been there, they called to see where he was. He arrived home about 2½ hours later. He said that he had made calls, but had nothing to say about the energy of a campaign ground game that appears to be unprecedented in modern politics. Soon it will be time to retire his politically papered Honda as well.

Although it is now me doing most of the reading and talking about issues, we are still able to talk and we are still able to share our joy in politics. I am fortunate that maybe tonight, we will be able to celebrate together by phone and share one more big and exciting win.