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Politics
By Milt Abel | November 4, 2010
| November 4, 2010Politics
This past Saturday, October 30th, my wife and I drove into Portland intending to participate in a local, organized gathering to show support for Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity, which was occurring at the same time in Washington D.C. The fact that we already had to drive our youngest daughter into town for her acting class, which was occurring near this local rally, at the same time, makes us opportunists, sure. But idealistic opportunists.
We dropped her off then searched for a parking space that split the distance between the start of the planned march and her class, cheating towards her class thinking all the rally-goers would make finding parking impossible. So maybe pessimistic idealistic opportunists describes us best.
We parked behind a car that had this bumper sticker applied high near the bend of the trunk lid: “Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.” Chilling to read as you park to attend your first political rally ever. Considering the rally’s success would be measured in exactly how large it got, and we were joining it to increase the show of numbers -and the coincidence of parking there, behind that car, with that bumper sticker, well it made me wary. Why this message now? I was a suspicious, pessimistic, idealistic opportunist.
I believe, and this theory has been discussed in books like Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, that we get stupider in large numbers. Humans get energized by the presence of other humans -either we fear them and want to be alone, or we get jazzed up and want to interact, but we change and become more reactive than when by ourselves. We do get stupider; when does a crowd gather to rationally contemplate? Never. This explains why stadium chess never took off and European soccer riots are the norm.
The size of the crowd gathered outside Portland’s City Hall was humble to the point of self-deprecating. The several dozen people already congregated smiled at us and each other with a ‘it’s all in good fun’ type of smile, but I’m sure everyone had a question in the back of their minds; is this it? I almost felt stupid, but thanks to the bumper sticker and ‘The Madness of Crowds, the small crowd indicated I might not be as stupid as I was thinking I was. I think.
The City Hall gathering point was for marchers who would carry signs and dress in costumes as they walked from Portland’s downtown, the west side of the Willamette River, to the East side of town and where the main rally was to be held. We knocked around for about an hour, chatting with people, commenting on their signs, and just as the marchers we’re lining up to begin the two-mile walk, it started to rain. This was also the time we needed to head back to get our daughter; her class was ending. Opportunists first, then all those other things.
My wife is far more socially active than I, though attending the Jon Stewart support event was as much my idea as hers. Locally she’s far more involved. We held an open house a few weeks back for one of our small town’s mayoral candidates, Robert Bitter. People could come to our house and chat informally with the candidate and get to know him and his agenda, it was something my wife volunteered to do. No one showed, but I had a chance to spend a couple hours with a candidate, for anything!, in the comfort of my own home. I found Robert eminently likable, smart, and rational -though, we were a very small crowd.
Just this past Tuesday, Robert Bitter returned the courtesy and invited us to his home to observe election night results and help celebrate victory, should it come his way. Far more people were in attendance than at our house; maybe two dozen family members, supporters, and politically involved people, and me, the opportunist (there was food).
My home town is very small. A regular joke in my act is:
“My town is very small. Our last mayor was elected by rock-paper-scissors. We had a run-off -or a do-over.”
So to get election returns for the mayoral race, Robert had his computer opened on the kitchen counter, faced out to the living room, and an esoteric county website displayed for reading the results. The large screen TV in the living room was showing statewide returns with host personalities giving their spin, but repeated checks to the website revealed nothing. Then shortly after nine o’clock the results came in and they were complete and decisive, the other guy won.
We are so trained these days to see election numbers trickle in, and observe the results like we were indeed at a race; cheering with rising and falling emotions. But here, tonight; one minute it was wide open, the next it was over. I had asked Robert earlier in the evening if there were any poll results in his race; to know what we might expect. He laughed at the thought of the expense -there are roughly 4500 votes at issue in our small town. The results showed 2488 for the mayor-elect and 1948 for Bob. Decided.
I was seated in a chair out on the edge of the living room when he took everyone’s attention to concede the race and thank everyone for their efforts. He stood right next to me as I tried to look as small and inconsequential as I could. Though I voted for him, and opened my house to him, I felt awkwardly in focus at the, for this room, profoundly sad moment. I felt a little like that busboy in the famous photos of the Robert Kennedy assassination; this shouldn’t be happening, and I shouldn’t be here. That event was far woefully more profound, but it didn’t stop me from wanting to cross the room and busy myself with clearing some dishes.
TweetTopics: comedy | 1 Comment »
November 6th, 2010 at 9:01 pm
Thanks for being an idealist with me, that should have been my sign. Next time…