Recommended Reading for Election Day

Don’t worry, I’m not going to suggest any books about the candidates or policy advice or doomsday predictions for the future.  I’m not even going to recommend non-fiction.  I’m a political junkie.  In the Allen-Niesen household we talk about politics all the time, even during odd numbered years.  In fact, my son, Kyle and I were interviewed about our family politics on the American Public Media program The Story, listen to how we’re involved in politics. 

Despite my unwavering interest, even I paused before opening the paper this morning; I’m ready to vote, celebrate (hopefully) and concentrate on who is going to be in the Cabinet.  But I want to stay in this historic moment, to do so while also taking a break from all the talking heads, curl up with either, or both, of these two terrific novels:

America, America by Ethan Canin – this book was front and center in all of the independent bookstores I visited over the summer, and rightly so, it has the feel of an old fashioned family saga, but with a political twist and message about power.  The story is told through the eyes Corey Sifter.  As the narrator, he is an adult describing what he observed during his high school years in the 1970s when he worked for the Metarey family.  The reader sees a naive bystander’s view, so we add our own knowledge of politics to decipher what’s going on until it is clearly spelled out at the end. 

The fictional Metareys were wealthy and powerful in east New York and they supported the 1972 presidential run of the fictional New York Senator Henry Bonwiller.  Sen. Bonwiller’s accomplishments for his country were extensive; he worked to end the Vietnam War, to clean up the Great Lakes, to bring healthcare to impoverished pregnant women. The public loved him as much as he loved his constituents, but maybe not as much as he loved himself.  The adult Corey observes that it “surprises me to see, as I have now time and again over the years, the mixture in a single person of such public idealism and such personal ruthlessness.” 

The political story in America, America follows a familiar true life trajectory, politician succeeds in Washington, grows an enormous ego, acts above law and morality, experiences disgrace.  Hardly a year goes by when we don’t see this cycle over and over again.  I wonder what happens to leaders when they get into office that they make the same mistakes as others before them, but expect to not get caught.  Are we only a catching a few, so the temptation to misbehave is irresistible because the likelihood of discovery is so low, like cheating on your taxes because so few people are audited?  That feels awfully cynical.  Or are politicians truly representative of all of us, so that a certain percentage of our leaders act as if the rules don’t apply to them, just as a percentage of the population acts the same way?  Corey has his own view of the cycle of power:

One of the hallmarks of our politics now is that we tend to elect those who can campaign over those who can lead . . . For a man on the rise in politics, power first comes through character–that combination of station and forcefulness that produces not just intimidation, which is power’s crudest form, but flattery, too, which is one of its more refined.  After that, power begins to grow from its own essence, rising no longer exclusively from the man but from the office itself.  And this is where some balance must be found between its attainment and its allotment, between that unquenchable desire in any politician to rise, and the often humbling requirement that one’s station must now be used to some benefit.  And here, of course, is where corruption begins; for power contains an irresistible urge to further itself: there is always the next race.  But when finally there isn’t any more, when at last there is no more ambition to quell, no more inchoate striving to follow as a guidestar, then a politician must make a transformation that he may have no more ability to make than he has to grow wings and fly.  He must change his personal ambition into ambition for his country.

We have all seen leaders who have successfully made the transititon from ambition for self to ambition for country, and those who have wallowed in ambition for self and the behavior that such self-absorbtion can lead.

America, America is also a story of the American dream, of the premise that each generation will lift up the next, that each child will surpass the station of her parent.  The first generation Metarey arrives from Scotland with his son and both are indentured servants.  By the time of his death, he is a rags to riches story.  We’re read that book over and over (I love those books), this one looks at the third generation, not as a shirtsleeves-to-shirtsleeves story, but a third generation that works hard in business to be economically successful and to care for the community in a paternalistic manner.  Possibly out of a sense of duty or possibly out of a sense of guilt for evils committed by the first generation to amass wealth. 

Another generational story is Corey’s family.  His father is a working man for the Metarey enterprises, but through the generosity of the Metareys, Corey attends a boarding school and then college.  He becomes a journalist.  He and his father have a loving relationship, but there is an underlying tension between the blue collar worker and the white collar worker, of working with your hands or working with your mind.  A fear of Corey leaving his family behind.  One scene makes me teary eyed whenever I think of it; towards the end of his life Corey’s dad writes the date September 7, 1971 in wet cement and tells Corey it is the last date the family was all together, the date he took Corey to boarding school, the date of the end of their lives together.   Corey returned home from boarding school almost every weekend, but the leaving was more than physical, it was entering a world unknown to his parents.

I saw a recommendation for Citizen Vince by Jess Walter, winner of the 2006 Edgar Award for Best Novel, last summer in Book Shop Santa Cruz.  In this book, the story is fictional but is entwined with the 1980 Reagan and Carter election.  It’s the story of a felon, Vince Camden, in the witness protection program and living in Spokane .  Due to his new identity he is no longer a convicted felon and he can vote.  At the beginning of the book, Vince receives his registration card which prompts him to pay attention politics for the first time in his life. 

Vince lives in the world of crime, gambling and prostitution, and the conversations about politics among these characters is humorous.  They don’t think about or talk about politics at all (that aspect was foreign to me), it is not part of their world, but they know they are anti-gun control and do not favor increased police protection. 

Mr. Walter catches the atmosphere of the election over and over.  Vince half listens to the pivotal last debate between Carter and Reagan, noticing that Carter looks too tired to continue:

Sometimes you just get tired.  And maybe there are forces aligned against you, maybe they have stolen your debate notes and maybe they’re even making deals with terrorists and maybe the minute you’re out of office, the hostages will come home.  Then again:  maybe not.  Maybe you’re just too tired to go on.  And maybe that is defeat, in the end . . . simply giving in.  Maybe it’s no worse that going to sleep.

Of course, that debate ends with Reagan’s famous question that we’ve now heard every election cycle:  “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”  I love Vince’s take away though, “which of these stupid ***** are you supposed to vote for?”  During a poker game with a crime boss in New York that Vince believes is trying to kill him, the crime boss explains why Regan is going to win (language and sexual behavior are very explicit throughout the book):

Hell yes, Reagan’s going to win.  This is a whole new thing comin’ here.  It’s gonna be **** flags and parades and armies and virgins and 19***50 all over again.  A pussy can get elected one, but not twice.  We can’t go eight years without kicking a little ass.  We like to kick ass.  We pretend we don’t.  But we do. . . That guy [Reagan] could be our boss!  I’d follow him.  He knows!  He knows to be a man and people follow.  He knows you gotta earn for your friends and you gotta be a man and gotta protect your family.  You gotta stand up, no matter what.  You know why?  Huh? . . . Because the people . . . out there . . . they’re all different, the spics and fags and Upper East Side dickheads and little old Chinese ladies . . . but they all got one thing in common.  All of ‘em . . . They’re afraid.  Scared to death.  That’s all they want in a boss.  You know?  Someone who ain’t scared.  That’s all. 

The essence of the 1980 election was a desire to escape an overwhelming feeling of failure and defeat and Reagan arrived ready to declare ‘happy days are here again.’  I was 17 at the time and I still remember the images of the election and the returning hostages folded in together on a newscast.

Ultimately, exercising his vote becomes very important to Vince, in fact he risks his life to do it.  It demonstrates his commitment to turn straight and live the life of a responsible citizen, but not in any conceivable way that you could imagine. 

The fictional character Vince risked his life to vote, so I’m going to climb on my soapbox.  Men and women risked their lives, lost their lives and have been beaten in order to vote.  All you have to do is show up, maybe wait in line.  John Lewis, a Congressman and civil rights activist for black Americans, was almost moved to tears last weekend as he saw the lines of people waiting to vote in Georgia and N. Carolina.  A year ago, one of my biggest concerns for America was that the population seemed asleep at the wheel, more concerned with American Idol than the American country.  No matter who wins, the best part of this election is that we are awake, people are talking and working for the future of our country.  Don’t miss out, bring a book, or a friend to keep you company, but vote. 

My husband and I are volunteering for a non-partisan organization, Election Protection, to help people who are having problems voting on election day.  If you have any questions about voting or have any problems, call the nationwide hotline 1-866-OUR-VOTE.