Too Dumb to Understand Why It Was a Mistake
By Don Hall
I was 18-years-old in 1984, and while I was bright enough to have read and understood Orwell’s prophecy, Melville’s opus to obsession, and given up on Hawthorne’s seven gables (I still don’t really know what a ‘gable’ is), I was not as up to speed on political nuance.
Leading up to the election, the message my teenage brain received was that Ronald Reagan was cool. He was different. He was polished and could swing that nine club of snark while still seeming congenial. Walter Mondale was smart but looked disheveled even when he was impeccably dressed. He was wonkish and cerebral.
I understood the stakes. I recall my mother getting into a huge fight with her husband over the 1972 presidential election. He was a Nixon man, she a McGovern woman.
It was important to my mother. Voting was important. My voice was one among the throng but a drop of water makes an ocean and all that jazz was inspiring.
Or rather, Mr. Restivo was inspiring. Tom Restivo was the high school girl’s basketball coach, the Vice Principal, and the kind of tough love guru a truly troubled and mortifyingly stupid kid needed.
Restivo was a true blue, flag waving patriot. He loved America and the country’s possibilities. His parents had immigrated to the United States when he was a boy and his unwavering belief in the responsibility of a citizen was typically optimistic. He loved Reagan. Reagan was optimistic, Mondale was not.
So I voted in my first election for Ronald Reagan for reasons that had little to do with policy or people. I voted for image. I voted for Mr. Restivo.
The trouble with focusing on image over substance becomes obvious once one has graduated high school. The melee of popularity versus smarts is written in broad strokes in the vast wasteland of secondary education.
A year or two into Reagan's second term, I became a bit more politically engaged and came to regret my vote. I grew to understand that, in order to make my vote matter, it had to be cast with an eye toward the ideals of the candidate rather than the candidate's television acumen.
Today I take my participation more seriously. I do research on every single candidate (especially the local elections) and vote for those whom I feel represent the ideals set forth for all Americans to aspire.
Don Hall is a writer, teacher, storytelling, consultant, and a senior copywriter for VentureTactics, LLP. In the past 30 years, Don has worn many hats—Off-Strip casino manager in Las Vegas, Chicago public school music teacher, story slam host, Off Loop theatrical producer/director, the Director of Events for WBEZ 91.5 FM, Front of House Manager for Millennium Park, retired professional trumpet player, and one-time homeless busker. Like each random gig is a chapter in a truly strange novel written by a lunatic. He lives in Las Vegas with his brilliant poet/musician wife, Dana Jerman. Go to his website at donhall.vegas for more information, and visit the digital magazine he co-edits and contributes regularly to: www.literateape.com.