The best part of election year is the overwhelming feeling of unanimous obligatory directionless direction on all sides, and from all sides. Everyone seems to have a sense of where they are going and what they stand for, but I can’t seem to find a single measurable and attainable goal from any campaign.
To me it seems like living in a gigantic city that has at least two huge high schools both of which are in an extremely long pep rally for no specific game or competition. It’s just a pep rally for the heck of it. Everyone is screaming their heads off and there are fireworks and really long speeches and everyone is slapping everyone else on the back, hand, and sometimes the butt. There is never an end to the gallons of confetti and balloons and there is a hidden band somewhere playing music that everyone recognizes, but no one knows the words too. Everyone feels out of place because if you are participating then you feel like you should be watching and if you are watching then you feel like you should be participating and it’s all just very confusing.
Just when you feel you know what’s going on the tone changes and someone else gives another speech and hurls you into a pit of even greater confusion. Just when you think it can’t get any worse you realize that you aren’t even in the right pep rally. You are supposed to be across town at the other team’s pep rally, but it’s already been 2 months and you think people might call you names for changing teams halfway through the whole process even though you really wouldn’t be changing teams at all. You’d just be getting to the right team. You are once again cast into an even darker corridor of confusion when you begin to consider that you couldn’t even tell the difference between your pep rally and the competition’s pep rally. You start to wonder how that is even possible. You think you would pick up on certain que’s, but it’s all just a big, noisy, bright pep rally and you don’t even know what it’s for. You decide to stick it out at the wrong rally after concluding that the whole show won’t hang in the balance depending on which one you’re at. Honestly since no one seems to notice you at all it’s very likely that you wouldn’t be counted with the present or absent from either rally.
You begin to notice that even though everyone is so terribly excited about what is going on they seem to appear just as confused as you. So they are really just very confused and lonely people screaming and cheering, which might legitimately be labeled as a desperate cry for help by a psychiatrist determining the mental state of an individual who has either just committed suicide or has been committed to a mental institution. You wonder what would happen if everyone who was confused or lost or completely uninterested just quit yelling and went home how many people would be left at the rally. You come to the conclusion that approximately 13 people would be left, give or take a dozen.
You finally decide to leave since you are very tired and confused and you’re at the wrong rally and you aren’t even certain what the rally is for. But just as you are making your way to the door a very official looking individual approaches the podium to make an announcement. Everyone in the rally goes quiet including the band, which you still don’t know where is located. The man mumbles that your rally has lost and the other rally has won. You want to cheer since it is actually your team, but you deem it best to hold it in. Everyone shuffles out slowly talking about, “next time we’ll get it.”
When you get home you begin to wonder what will change now that your team has won. You also wonder what it is they won. You also wonder if you can take part in the celebration since you were at the wrong rally. You certainly don’t want anyone to think that you are just jumping on the bandwagon. No one wants to be labeled as a team hopper. When you wake up the next morning nothing is changed and you can’t tell a difference.
Four years later there is another huge pep rally for each team. This time it’s even bigger and longer. You are certain that things will be better this time and that you will know what is going on. You’ve spent the past four years paying attention to the news and keeping up on current events. You grab your team hat and flag and head off to the wrong pep rally again. Go Team America!!!
-Jesse Brooks
