The big night is upon us so I have decided to rent a hotel room and attend an election night viewing event with fellow Americans. It's strange; I feel I am on the precipice of making a lot of friends all at once and friend-making is something that I have sadly devalued at the moment. My friendliness has taken a hit since COVID. I feel older and more muted. These last ninety days have been spent with Mauricio looking at properties and applying for jobs and working on my novel. And while the Brits are fair-minded with a great sense of humor, the city of London is not a bubbly haven like New York, San Francisco, or even Boston. I'm still learning to pick up the signs of the natives and I'm still learning how to flow into their rhythm. And while hanging with other "ex-pats" seems like picking low-hanging fruit, I still want to surround myself with my fellow countrymen and countrywomen. 2008 vibes are in the air!
The ex-president cannot win. I'm still nursing my wounds from Hillary's fall on that sad November evening in 2016. So imagine my exaltation at Iowa pollster wunderkind, Ann Selzer, who has Kamala Harris LEADING by three points in The Hawkeye State (!). Her findings: senior women are coming out of the woodwork in fury that Roe has been reversed. Here is a great interview of Ann with Tim Miller of The Bulwark. And if Iowa is a blue possibility, we shouldn't sleep on electoral rich Ohio. Can you imagine?! Women across this country will be the heroes of this election, ushering in the first female (of color!) into the White House. This has to be the story. As a feminist ally, it is infuriating that we have this stark double standard on display. Imagine if Harris had displayed the same antics of Don the Con, everything from not taking questions and swaying on stage for forty minutes to gay anthems like YMCA and holding hate-filled rallies insulting various groups of the body politic. Research has shown that democracies with more female representation lead to better outcomes across a range of policies. Specifically the more women in government, the lesser the legal and economic inequality. Countries with more women in power lead to a higher GDP.
The themes over radio, television and podcastia over the next few months will be about the rise of women and the growing power of Gen Z. Specifically on the former, I foresee that Rebecca Traister will be a media guest with her 2016 book All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation. The book should have flown off the shelves with a Hillary win but sometimes these events don't align so perfectly.
Published March 1st, 2016
Tomorrow night I shall also attend a documentary of Kamala Harris with Democrats Abroad before we gather at Marylebone Sports Bar and Grill
Melcombe Place, London NW1 6JJ as the votes get counted. The viewing will be an all-night affair since we are five hours ahead of the east coast. This is gonna be history folks!
