Presidential election memories

[Hope For A New Era]

Not much memory here, but I'll write what I can.
Edit: okay maybe more memory than I thought there was lol

---

2008 (age 7): I wasn't super aware here. I remember that I knew that the candidates were Obama and McCain, that they were a Democrat and Republican respectively, that they were from Illinois and Arizona, and that my parents were supporting McCain. I don't remember the election night itself, though I imagine I must have seen some part of the coverage. My only memory of election day is from the morning - I saw my teacher walk in wearing an "I voted" sticker and asked her who she voted for. She refused to tell me. (looking back with what I know about her, probably McCain). I didn't really have an opinion or strongly support either candidate.
I remember being at school the next day (or maybe a few days later) and being shown a map of states won by each candidate. All of them were filled in red or blue except Missouri, which was greyed-out because it was still too close to call at that point.
Here's the weird thing - I didn't realize Obama was black. This despite having seen countless photos of him and McCain for months. It wasn't until after the election when people kept talking about how he was the first black president that I looked closely at a photo and was like "huh, he actually is black. I didn't realize." Not sure how that worked. 7-year-old me was weird.

---

2012 (age 11): I was much more aware here. The general sense among people I knew was that Obama would win again, but by a much smaller margin than before, which is exactly what happened. Not really any surprises. I remember watching the news coverage with my mother. I didn't have a map, but I think I was listing the states won by each candidate as they were called? Something like that. I remember having a pen and paper for something.

---

2016 (age 15): This is when I really got into politics. Before I start I should note that I first developed views of my own around 2013-2014, though the process that led me there started in 2012. It was kind of a slow realization of "wait, but I thought the Republicans were the good guys?" - anyway, point is, I was strongly anti-Trump from the beginning. I remember not thinking he had any chance of winning the primary until around February. My parents were Kasich supporters. I remember asking them what they would do if Trump won the primary, and they both said they didn't know. They eventually ended up voting third party in the election.
Election night itself was very tense. I remember thinking it was a slight lean toward Clinton but that it was very uncertain. My first hint that things might not be going as I hoped was Florida, and it all went downhill from there. I got up and started baking cookies, just to have something to do, but I remember struggling to get the dough onto the pan because of how much my hands were shaking.
I remember being most shocked by Pennsylvania. I had always viewed Pennsylvania as part of the solid block of northeastern D states, along with its neighbors NY/NJ/MD and the like, so as far as I was concerned it was equal to calling Connecticut for a Republican. It really took me a while to pick my jaw up off the floor after that one.
Races were called for Blunt and Greitens around the same time. The Greitens one was a disappointment to all of us - my parents had actually voted D for governor, in my father's case literally only the second D vote he had ever cast in his life (the first was for Douglas Wilder in 1989 in Virginia).
I finally went to bed around 3AM (Central time). I remember doing the math that if Clinton could win Arizona, Alaska, and New Hampshire (or some weird combination like that) she could still win, and then I went to sleep hoping it would happen or that states would find some missing D ballots or something.
Obviously, that didn't happen.
The next day was...bizarre. Really surreal. It felt normal, but...subdued. I considered skipping school, but ultimately decided not to, which was probably a poor decision, because I was basically sleepwalking the whole time.
0/10 would not recommend.

---

2020 (age 19): I pretty much view this as the election that decides whether American democracy will survive for (at least 4) years to come or whether the country will fall into authoritarianism. The stakes are...whatever the stakes equivalent of "priceless" is. Immeasurably high. The most important election of our lifetimes. A Flight 93 for democracy.

The rest is to be determined. I'll probably update this after the election. Now, we can only wait and hope. I'll be mailing my absentee ballot (straight D, to the point of leaving Rs running unopposed for county offices blank) within the next 12 hours, and after that...I guess it's time to let the cards fall where they may.