We Need to Talk About November
Okay team, huddle up. We need to have a very serious conversation about the next couple of weeks and how to manage our expectations and stress. We are about to create some new, very inspiring history here in the United States, and you don’t want to miss experiencing the moment because of nerves…or polls…or PTSD from the last time we tried to advance the female gender in this country.
The election on November 5th, 2024, will be like no other election ever. It has been easy for main stream media to overuse this very accurate assessment of what we are headed into in order to boost their ratings and dramatize the rhetoric for views, but it also happens to be true. For political wonks like myself, elections are always a big event, but this year we have a political Super Bowl matchup like nothing we have ever seen, complete with a record number of ad buys and commercial spending.
It is also very hard to maintain a high level of energy for so long, without that energy needlessly converting to an anxious or even angry state. I hope everyone has become well-versed in the art of taking breaks from the daily news, the latest political gossip and even our own worst fears that lead to the pointless game of “whataboutism.”
Because this election has been so hyped for such a long time, with a news cycle that never quits, we are all on a media manufactured rollercoaster meant to keep us buckled in until well after the ride is over. It is not healthy for a person to stay hyped at this “DNC roll call level” of enthusiasm for months on end, so the key to managing mental health will include constant breaks — with the confidence that you know where and when to check back in.
I have kept my own schedule, minus the time I need to work and earn a living, very limited for next week and the week following the election to make room for anything that might happen. Many of you have taken time off to go to another swing state location to help with the election efforts (shout out to my mom who will be assisting the legal effort in North Carolina.) This is wonderful, but we have to take into account that this experience is not over after the polls actually close.
The counting of votes in each state is going to be like nothing we have ever seen before. Each state will have their own laws about how the vote will be tabulated. Based on the numbers coming in, there might be recounts, and there will most definitely be quick-trigger lawsuits from both political parties and candidates to ensure the proper result. Dissecting the week after the election will be as exciting and intense as the election itself. In thinking about how I intend to manage the fatigue and worry in the week after the election, I am thinking a lot about my feelings after the 2016 election and my fears from 2020.
No one wants to feel the way they did on the night of November 8, 2016. We can let go of our fears of re-living this experience now, because this election will not be called right away like it was then. This time will be more like it was in 2020, when everyone was glued to the TV and to social media to dissect each state that was in play and what each side could still do to prevail. The good news for us this time is that we have the well established legend of Steve Kornacki at The Big Board, who will provide us will the best and fastest information that could affect the outcome.
During the last election, my sleep cycle got really strange. It felt like we were all huddled together in a safety shelter, waiting to see what the next move would be to secure the country. Like we slept in two hour shifts, always ready to jump up for something definitive that proved Joe Biden had won, so that we could finally take a breath. After the events of Jan. 6, we know the lengths that Donald Trump and his supporters will go to in order to take back power regardless of its rightful owner, and this is adding even more uncertainty and stress to the election.
Trump and his supporters are counting on that fatigue. They operate best when they are dealing with other angry, irrational people, so the last thing we should do is fall into their trap of making ourselves crazy before the results are tabulated. I have the ability to get completely calm when everything around me is chaotic. It is a skill that makes me a good lawyer, but it is also something that helps me as a political analyst in these times. What we are going to need after Election Day is calculated, accurate data so that we can accurately assimilate information and compare it with all of the possible legal moves each political party can make. It’s a lot, but it is also VERY EXCITING.
I refuse to let the past trauma of 2016 affect my experience this time around. Sometimes how you do something is as important as just getting something done, and I want this election to be the win that it should have been before and more. The way we make this experience worth the cost of the last several years and many of our own individual rights, is to really take in the moment, and not let the worry of another worst case scenario cloud our experience.
I think a lot about Hillary Clinton and all of the women who came before her to get us to this place, and the only thing I can do now to show my overwhelming appreciation for their sacrifices is to honor their own message and not give Donald Trump another moment of my own fear. For this election, in order to experience the full glory of the moment and the achievement, I am determined to be fearless and move forward confidently as I experience this next great moment in American history.
I would like to issue an open invitation to spend the next few weeks with me and my family as we work toward achieving this long overdue goal and while we manage our stress from the election result fallout. Whatever happens — and I believe with all of my heart and mind that this election is going to put Kamala Harris in the White House — I will be either here, posting on SHERO, or live, posting on Twitter. Rest assured, if you wake up at 2am with anxiety and turn on cable news to see if anything new has happened, I will be right there with you to laugh and nervous cry in our best moments.
Donald Trump took 2016 away from us. We lost so many lives to Covid, so many of our rights regarding our own bodies, and so much respect from the rest of the world. I refuse to let Trump, or some idiotic sychophant like JD Vance take anything more from me and my sense of well-being. It’s okay to be nervous, and it’s okay to be unsure, but now is the time to resolve that our confidence in the next two weeks will be steely and our hearts will be fearless.
I want to elect Kamala Harris as the first female president of the United States — but more than that I want to feel the joy and elation that we should have had in 2016, on top of the interest that has been accruing so that this experience is one of the best things we have ever witnessed. We deserve nothing less.
Amee Vanderpool is incredibly fired up for this election and writes the SHERO Newsletter, is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines, and an analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.
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I will be ecstatic and relieved for Trump to lose so resoundingly that we won’t ever have to see or hear from him again! The same sentiment applies to the spineless elected Republicans who let him take over the party and do SO much damage to the country!