Once the Dust Settles

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

Election Day is staring us down like a schoolyard bully who means business, and it’s clear we’ve got major upheaval coming our way.

This is not about recounts or riots or chartered jets full of attorneys. Assuming that a messy aftermath is a matter of course, what’s of concern here is what happens once the dust settles and the other national pastime becomes a thing of the past.

The presidential race has been our bread and butter for the better part of the past year, furnishing us with a delicious sense of purpose and moral oomph. Our conversations have taken on an air of substance. Our silly dance parties have doubled as serious political fund-raising events.

Nobody at the gym even watches MTV anymore – everyone’s Stair mastering to C-Span and “Meet the Press.” That’s how a row of us Brooklynites learned that 72% of respondents to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll said “Yes” to “Does this election matter to your life?” In the 1996 race, the number was 40%.

People have been taking even the most contrived and heartless bits to heart. They shout at the television all day long and go to sleep at night feeling like civic-minded superstars. It’s going to hurt royally when it’s over.

“It’s going to be less exciting,” a fifth grader, Gabrielle Brown, said the other day. She lives near Union Square and heads up the John Kerry campaign at P.S. 41. She spends most of her spare time Google-searching information on the candidates, and she said it’s been ages since she’s played a game on her computer. “I will soon,” she said. “We’re going to go back to complaining about how much homework we have and stuff.”

Leave it to businesses across the country to pounce on our soon-tobe-fidgety mindset.

Hollywood, for one, has been saving up releases with blockbuster potential, such as “Alexander” and “The Incredibles,” for this Friday.

The travel Web siteOffpeaktraveler.com has come up with what it calls a “post-election special.” The page sings out: “Election overload? Go to Buenos Aires.” The spokesman of the Travel Industry Association of America, Allen Kay, said: “There are an enormous amount of travel specials taking place the first few weeks of November, with regular prices returning by Thanksgiving.”

Even some gyms are hoping to get in on the return to selfishness. The owner of the Madison Square Club, David Kirsch, said that after presidential elections he usually sees an up-tick of between 10 and 15% in enrollment, and this year he expects it to rise by a grand 25%.

Many of those who have thrown themselves into this election heart and soul say they don’t expect their do-gooder energy will die – they plan to remain committed to their causes or, if need be, to find new causes. That’s very nice and all, but the truth of the matter is there’s something a bit lame about intending to swap the presidential race as a pet cause with rezoning laws or animal rights.

In the month leading up to the election, the public-radio station WNYC has been airing a daily “30 issues in 30 Days” program, attracting legions of listeners who normally don’t get jazzed up about politics. The station’s vice president of marketing, Dean Cappello, said WNYC will continue exploring the issues after the election simmers down, but he expects mainstream media outlets will handle post-election hangover by doling out hyped-up programs on subjects like what the president did today, or the war between the American right and the American left. He likened that scenario to the way the O.J. Simpson saga created a need for similar story lines and spawned the pandemic obsession with the Scott Peterson and Robert Blake cases. “It’s gripping drama but not exactly substantial,” Mr. Cappello said.

A year-old political action committee, Downtown For Democracy. intends to keep operating, even if its 15-strong staff is set to be shaved down to two. Once the city’s mayoral and City Council races take off, the group will draft a “battle plan” and get to work. In the meantime, the group’s political director, Erik Stowers – who’s staying on – plans to load up on the sleep and family time he’s been in want of during the race. “I’m going to go back to having a bit of a private life,” he said.

For people who’ve come to politics only recently, it’s going to be especially painful when the curtain falls. They’re not used to the crash-and-burn of it all. They’ll be scratching their heads, wondering where all the political rah-rah ran off to.

The owner of the East Village boutiquetees.com, Dominique Camacho, was never especially involved in politics, but this year she’s often found herself canceling dinner plans to stay home and watch CNN. Instead of a party last month for her 36th birthday, she organized a “Florida or Bust” event where friends stopped by and made plans to go register voters in Florida. She said she and her friends wanted to make a difference, but “it’s also been like therapy for us.” And she said: “I’ll be in withdrawal soon.”

On balance, many people are going to find that with the end comes a sense of liberation. A florist in Union Square, Gary Orioli, said he intends to take down the campaign posters that cover every square inch of his shop as soon as the race is decided. “I like to see daylight,” he said. “You never know what time of day it is in here.”

And a Williamsburg resident, Charlie Spink, a retired professor of chemistry and biophysics, said it’s been killing him to have to follow the online editions of four daily newspapers, reading every single word of every single item on the op-ed pages. As soon as the election plays out he’ll go back to nothing but the print edition of one daily newspaper, and he’s looking forward to lingering over whatever arts or music features strike his fancy. “It’ll be back to normal,” the 68-year-old said.

Just as the election drama will abate, eventually, so will the post election letdown, eventually. An associate professor of psychology at Columbia University, George Bonanno, who specializes in “affective forecasting,” estimated that only 5% of the population will be truly hurting as a result of post-election bereavement. Out of that group, very few won’t bounce back, he said. “People cope better with traumatic events than they think they will,” Mr. Bonanno said. “I think many people will be somewhat relieved they can go back to their routine.”

Before people do slouch back into the usual patterns, now would be a fine time to apply all they’ve learned about the importance of making a difference to something closer to home – even if it’s not going to shake up the nation. Be a better person. Extend a lunch invitation to that intern you usually pretend is invisible. Or stop making your poor kitty cat wear dinosaur costumes when your friends come over.


The New York Sun

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