By Anna Murphy
New York, NY, USA
I think I can finally write about this because we’re ramping up for the election of 2012 and ’08 is just a blip on the radar. Well, a blip in the form of all my conservative friends still showing their disdain years later via wall photos of Obama next to the text: “No Jobs: 2009-2011,”etc. Nevertheless, the actual election is getting further and further removed.
Anna Murphy
|
The year 2008 was memorable to me for a few reasons. It was the year I graduated from college and the first year I would be voting for the next President of the United States as an employed and salaried citizen. I was raised in a Catholic military family, i.e., conservative to the core. My mother is morally conservative and historically votes only for prolife candidates. My dad is more fiscally conservative, but a Republican through and through. Even though I believe babies of the eighties were raised to be independent thinkers, you could see how this upbringing would affect me in my adult life.
Supplement my childhood with four years in the most cookie-cutter sorority the University of Florida had to offer (majority being bleach-bottle-blonde Christians), and I can safely say that I was hanging out on the “rightest of the right” that any wing has to offer. I also dated a boy my senior year who picked me up on our first date sporting a red, white and blue elephant pin. His fraternity was founded by Robert E. Lee and the boys dressed up every year as Confederate soldiers for an [THE] event dubbed “Old South.” I even donned a ball gown one year to pay homage to the gray uniforms of yore. So really, what was a girl to do?
Per usual, my long-winded set-up leads to a very simple point: I was shell-shocked when introduced to the overwhelmingly liberal left ways of my neighbors, colleagues and peers in NYC. I had John McCain’s “Faith of Our Father’s” book on my bookshelf and my boss regularly sported an Obama tee under a blazer. And in 2008, I was entry level - meaning you don’t really stir the pot, you dress to impress, you drink the Kool-Aid, you get in early/work late and you don’t ever question the majority because, as we all know, the majority rules. So when Election Day rolled around and I put in my ballot for John McCain, you better believe I didn’t utter a word.
Cut to Election Night: I was with three of my friends are at some random bar watching the results stagger in. Every other bar in the city was overflowing with Obama fans - yes, they were more fittingly dubbed fans than voters. As Virginia turned blue, I called my mom who was already in bed, a surefire sign of defeat. I went to work the next day to people crying tears of joy, wearing Obama paraphernalia and reminding everyone that we were “part of history.” I didn’t act happy per se, rather, generally unfazed. I even got a few extra bucks in my paycheck the next month, care of Obama keeping his promises - at least one of them.
That Christmas, I got the “Most Likely to Have a Poster of Sarah Palin in her Locker” Award. I guess my conservatism wasn’t as covert as I had thought.
So this time around, I’m no longer the new kid and I’m not opposed to ruffling a few feathers here and there. That said, I probably won’t scream it from the mountaintops when, and if, I do toss my ballot toward the right.
Anna Murphy enjoys long runs along the Hudson River, live music, vegan cookies and the Florida Gators.
