Presidential election memories

[100% pro-life no matter what]

2004 (age 8 ): I decided I wanted Bush to win, not out of any ideological reason, but because, as far as I could remember Bush had always been the president and I liked the president.  I remember seeing a Kerry-Edwards sign and calling it stupid, even though my mom was voting for Kerry.  On election night, I walked into my parents' room and saw Kerry leading and I was upset, but my dad told me "it's like a baseball game in the first inning".  The next morning, I woke up, heard Bush was probably going to win, and was happy.  Though, I do remember seeing the full results in the paper and worrying about DC going 90% for Kerry (thinking "they're the closest to the White House, so what if they know best").

2008 (age 12): Going into the election, I decided that I wanted to see something that had never happened before- to see history.  I knew there had never been a female or black president, so I thought it would be cool to have either Clinton or Obama win.  I decided on Clinton, I think because I had a weird thing where I kind of liked to root for the champion against the upstart in sports, which kind of carried over into that primary.  During one of the debates, my grandfather tried to figure out my political views, and asked me what I thought of abortion.  I had never heard of abortion, so I asked him what it was; when he told me, I was horrified.  But, I still didn't know who was on which side, so I continued to support Hillary in the primaries.  That summer, after Obama won the nomination, my aunt asked me who I wanted to win.  I gave an unenthusiastic "I guess Obama" answer.  When my aunt asked me why, I said something like "there's this thing called abortion- I don't know if you've ever heard of it [I genuinely didn't realize that everyone knew what abortion was]-, which I believe is the killing of babies.  Obama's against it, and McCain's for it, so I guess I'll support Obama."  My aunt told me I had it all backwards, so I switched immediately to supporting McCain.

2012 (age 16): I started to learn about other issues since 2008, and I became a staunch Tea Partier and despised Obama with a passion.  I didn't know much about the various Republicans running until the primaries started.  I found myself rooting for Santorum to get the nomination, probably because he was the most vocally pro-life.  When Romney got the nomination, I vehemently supported him and used Rasmussen and Gallup polls to convince myself that he was going to win.  While I couldn't vote since I was 16, I did go to my local "victory center" to phone bank for Romney on Election Eve and Election Day.  One teacher also got upset with me for wearing a Romney-Ryan pin on my shirt in class (didn't punish me, but told me to take it off), even though the Dean of Students said it was OK.

2016 (age 20): I was acutely tuned into this race from the start.  I initially supported Scott Walker, then Marco Rubio, and finally Ted Cruz.  During the primaries, I legitimately thought Trump was a secret liberal who was trying to infiltrate the Republican Party to throw the election to Hillary Clinton.  I was extremely upset when he won the nomination after months of saying that there was no way he possibly could.  In the general election, I felt that there was no real option but to vote for Trump.  While I still wasn't completely sold on him, I took solace in the fact that he didn't stop paying lip service to the issues I cared about after winning the nomination.  Kind of enjoyed "triggering the libs" more than I'd like to admit today.

2020 (age 24): For most of this cycle, I've been in a "settle for Trump" mood, acknowledging my mixed feelings about him and what he is doing to our party versus the real support he has given religious liberty, the right to life, and other causes I believe in.  I did cast a protest vote in the primary, but one with the full intention of voting for Trump in the general.  I did briefly waver on it in the early summer (considering a write-in in the general), but pretty quickly moved back into Trump's column.  I also feel like I've been somewhat radicalized by the pandemic and an Orwellian "new normal", which I entirely oppose.