The first presidential election of my lifetime was in 1960, when John F. Kennedy was running against Richard Nixon. My blue collar family was comprised almost entirely of staunch Democrats, mostly Irish ones at that. Needless to say, in my house the soundtrack of that election was provided by the 45 rpm version of Frank Sinatra’s 1959 hit High Hopes, with the lyrics rewritten to support the Kennedy campaign:
Everyone is voting for Jack
Cause he’s got what all the rest lack
Everyone wants to back – Jack
Jack is on the right track.
‘Cause he’s got high hopes
He’s got high hopes
Nineteen Sixty’s the year for his high hopes.
Come on and vote for Kennedy
Vote for Kennedy
And we’ll come out on top!
Maybe it was that buoyant song that seeded my habit of associating aspirational music with politics in general and elections in particular. By the late 1960s, I was drawn to political songs that weren’t pushing for the election of specific candidates, but advocating for change in America.
The Times They Are A-Changin’. Respect. What’s Going On.
I voted for the first time in 1976, when Jimmy Carter—who celebrated his 100th birthday a couple of weeks before he deposited his 2024 ballot in a courthouse dropbox near his home in Georgia—was running against Gerald Ford. I was a college sophomore, excited to be voting for the first time. Two strong memories of the experience have stuck with me.
First, the camaraderie that eased the long wait at my polling place. Strangers chatted throughout the afternoon, finding common ground of one sort or another. People took turns making food runs. If someone needed to make a phone call (no cell phones then!) or use the restroom, the rest of us held their place. The queue moved by the inch not the foot, but no one left.
The other detail I remember about that day is Simon and Garfunkel’s song America running through my head while I waited in that long, slow line, especially its coda:
They’ve all come to look for AmericaAll come to look for AmericaAll come to look for America
As everyone on the planet knows, today is an especially momentous election day in the United States. If you haven’t voted by the time you’re reading this, let me add my voice to those encouraging you to do so before the polls close.
This past weekend I was in Pennsylvania, which we all know is a swing state with 19 coveted electoral votes.
The song that ran through my head as we passed yard sign after yard sign after yard sign? Another memorable song from the 1960s, Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come.
As we headed home to Maine a giant, illuminated message board in the Philadelphia airport stopped me in my tracks.
My dearest ones call me an optimist’s optimist. So what will I be humming today?
Freedom.
Because I’ve got high hopes.
Brenda Buchanan brings years of experience as a journalist and a lawyer to her crime fiction. She has published three books featuring Joe Gale, a newspaper reporter who covers the crime and courts beat. She’s now hard at work on new projects. FMI, go to http://brendabuchananwrites.com
‘Cause a winner don’t quit on themselves!
Right on! And Write on – please. I love listening to your voice. 👍🏻❤️
Brenda, wonderful!
Donna J.
Thank you. This will be a hard day, or days, to get through. We need thinks that lighten the mood and encourage optimism
Kate
I walked to the school down the street to vote today. I felt humbled. I am 77 years young and have been sad for all of the nasty crap I have been hearing. I hope there are enough of us left who still believe. I am optimistic. A former Mainer!
Spent 14.5 hours working at the polls and after seeing early results, these lyrics are running through my head.
The Eastern world, it is explodin’
Violence flarin’, bullets loadin’
You’re old enough to kill but not for votin’
You don’t believe in war, but what’s that gun you’re totin’?
And even the Jordan river has bodies floatin’
But you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
How you don’t believe
We’re on the eve of destruction