Thirty years ago I voted in an American election for the first time. I had just started at Tufts University, having lived for the previous eight years in the UK, Germany and Spain, and it was the mid-term elections. To my non-American audience, that means voting for congressmen and women, and some senators. My first presidential election was in 1996, but I was in London and voted by absentee ballot. That also marked the start of a culinary tradition for when I was abroad during special American events, namely elections and Thanksgiving.
There have been seven presidential elections from the time I became eligible to vote. Only twice have I been able to vote in person; the other five times were by absentee ballot (from London, Nigeria and Ukraine three times).
I’ve always kept politics out of my public life, whether that’s on social media or in the classroom. I considered that I was doing a good job if students were unable to tell what my political allegiances were, especially with teenagers when we did debates and looking at issues from both sides (the role of Devil’s Advocate and all that).
Four years ago, on my previous blog (pre-Substack), I wrote a post titled ‘Reflections on elections: some reminiscences.’ As a special, uh, ‘treat’, I’ve revisited that post and am updating it via audio here, waxing nostalgic on where I’ve been and how I’ve voted over the years, along with the culinary traditions involved.
No spoilers, but for the election itself, I’ve doing a pseudo-live, pizza and whisky-fueled running diary with my thoughts as things transpire. I say pseudo-live because it may or may not be actually live. You’ll see - I’ll jump into the chat and see who’s around to share thoughts, while at the same time doing a running diary in the form of a long post, raw, unfiltered and unedited, for as long as I can stay up. I’ll publish it before bed without any editing.
What questions do you have re: the election, politics and anything else? Send me via DM, in the comments below, or look for me on the chat from around 10pm Central European Time on 5 November. AMA, as they say: Ask Me Anything.
For now, enjoy the audio post/podcast (I’m still trying to decide whether these audio posts can be classified as actual podcasts).
Recommended reading
From my post on 3 Nov 2020, I shared some of that year’s reading list, which took on a very Americana theme. Here’s some of what I read that year, with my favourites in bold:
The Soul of America: The Battle for our Better Angels, Jon Meacham
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, Isabel Wilkerson
Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead
The USA trilogy: The 42nd Parallel; 1919; The Big Money, John Dos Passos
These Truths: A History of the United States, Jill Lepore
Hotel New Hampshire, John Irving
The Loss of El Dorado, VS Naipaul
Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Other American books (non-fiction) I’d recommend for understanding more about the American character, nation and the idea of American exceptionalism:
A Turn in the South, VS Naipaul
Stranger in a Strange Land: Encounters in the Disunited States, Gary Younge
When America Stopped Being Great: A History of the Present, Nick Bryant
Americana: A 400-Year History of American Capitalism, Bhu Srinivasan
American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America; and American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good, Colin Woodard
I highly recommend American Nations. It’s one of the best books I’ve read that explains the key regional differences and their historical origins.
Are there any good books you’d recommend? I’m especially curious about fiction - what would you consider to be the quintessential great American novel? All the King’s Men is often described as one of the best novels on American politics and I meant to read it this year, but alas….
Non-politically, what about something from Saul Bellow, Gore Vidal, Toni Morrison, Joan Didion, Norman Mailer, Willa Cather, Harper Lee, Alice Walker, John Updike, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner or Jack Kerouac? (Who am I missing?)
It's my 30 year anniversary of voting!