On the evening of Election Day, my Facebook news feed became full of threats to move out of the country, or at least out of the state of Arizona.
I will confess, my initial reaction to early election results that night was melodramatic. I said many off-color things that should not be printed. I belittled everyone whose ballot had not been filled out exactly the way I filled out mine. “”You did it wrong,”” I insisted, “”and I must be the only sane person left in this state.””
No wonder toddlers get tuckered out after they throw temper tantrums. It is exhausting to be so passionately, pointlessly, childishly furious.
If the candidate you picked won, congratulations. I wish you well, and look forward to all of your candidate’s missteps and achievements during his or her term. If the candidate you selected did not win, I am sorry. Now please swallow all your indignation, your disappointment and your histrionics. Better luck next time, kiddo. Now, suck it up.
The election process is flawed, but the concept is pretty simple: You vote, the votes get counted and the person you voted for either wins or loses. There is no clause that says, in the case of a specific candidate’s loss, moan about the nearing of the apocalypse and threaten to cry yourself to sleep before moving to Canada.
First, do you realize how cold Canada is? If there is anything that you simply cannot bear, it would have to do with physical weather conditions and not the victory of a candidate you did not vote for. You are coming from Tucson. You will not survive in Canada.
But secondly, what were you expecting as polling locations closed and news sources raced to send the fastest Twitter updates? This is often how that shiny and wondrous thing we call the democratic process works. You cast a vote, and sometimes you get what you want. A lot of times you do not.
It isn’t that you are required to remove your feelings from your politics. All that dissatisfaction and the desire to impact society are what drives people to be informed and involved. You do not have to stop caring about the decisions of the people who govern you, and it would be dangerous if no one ever acted on their discontent.
But you accomplish little by directing that frustration at newly elected officials simply because they were not elected by you, personally. It will drive you right into a brick wall.
Our TV commercials have returned to starring squealing pigs selling car insurance and adults dancing in blankets with arm holes, and I no longer receive daily phone calls from a recording of Sen. John McCain calling me his friend. Elections are over.
I don’t intend to just roll over and take it when a politician, who I didn’t want in office in the first place, screws up. But I’m also not going to kick and scream about their election as if kicking and screaming will change the outcomes of Election Day.
— Kristina Bui is a sophomore majoring in journalism and political science. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
