Five Things I Learned from the Election

1.      Money can’t buy you love.

Going into this election the pervasive view was that reduced restrictions on political advertising would mean billionaires buying elections. We can’t know what would have happened under the old rules, but after ridiculous billions spent almost nothing has changed. It is also clear that saturating the airwaves day-and-night with one side’s or another’s propaganda has steeply diminishing returns. Ads buy votes, but only to a very limited point. In the end you need a strong movement, a real passion for a candidate, and plans for the country that doesn’t freak most people out.

2.      We may need a constitutional amendment based on national annoyance.

Our nation has reached a point of electoral mutual assured destruction. It is bad for the country to have a four year presidential term, and two-year terms in the House of Representatives dominated for 18 months by fundraising and campaigning. It’s bad for our democracy to turn a spirited civic discussion into the Second Cola Wars. It’s bad for our collective psyches to have to hear political messages day and night for months on end. It’s oppressive, polarizing, and guarantees that our politicians will be working for whoever pays for their campaigns, and not the people who ultimately vote them in. Something has to be done about the length of campaigns, and the spending arms race, whose net result is only beneficial to the influence of advertisers and interest groups.  

3.      Polling doesn’t lie.

I’ve been on both sides of this. In 2004 I remember being sure that the polls were undercounting the young and minority groups who used cell phones or were otherwise difficult to reach. I remember looking at polls and thinking they must be off by 3 to 5 points based on some gut feeling I had that kept me going when winning felt like a mortal struggle. I was wrong then, and the other side was wrong this time. Modern polling is very sophisticated. Taken on a macro level over time, polls predict election outcomes with remarkable accuracy. Last night’s results look almost exactly like the weighted polling averages of many experts, red and blue. In the end I was only surprised by how few surprises there were.

4.      Even the deluded can concede that they were wrong.

Watching the internet and TV chatter since last night it’s striking how the other side has been so real about the policy and demographic corners they’ve painted themselves into. The same people who were so sanguine about their side’s mass appeal and were so absolutely certain about victory completely reversed themselves over the 15-or-so minutes around 11:00 last night. They could have called for revolution. Instead they became sober, contrite realists. It gives you a little faith in reality eventually winning out. It makes me a little less cynical about how the world works.

5.      The other side can be gracious in defeat.

After a brutal campaign Romney gave a magnanimous concession speech, and by any standards his audience was admirably calm and collected. Republicans were shocked by the results, but accepted what they meant without hesitation, and with minimal acrimony. When you scrape away the punditry, propaganda, loud extremists, and bluster of campaigns, what’s left are people of all kinds who are truly decent and absolutely invested in the future of this country. For me, it’s a reminder that most Americans want solutions to our challenges above ideology, and want leaders to work out our differences, no matter who’s in charge. It’s often those with the greatest power and influence who stand to gain the most from an angry, divided nation. We all need to learn that lesson.