We are inching closer to Tuesday, Nov. 3, and dare I say, I’m feeling oddly optimistic.
I definitely don’t want to jinx myself. But in recent days, I’ve been heartened to see people around the world standing up to and voting out bullies. Serbia. Brazil. Israel is still up in the air, but its election saw the highest turnout in a generation, according to The New York Times.
Turnout records are being broken across my home state of Texas, including in the county where I live.
No matter the outcome, higher voter turnout is a good thing.
My feelings will probably change about 50 more times before Nov. 3, but hey, it’s a moment.
I don’t have a crystal ball. I’ve been wrong before. I’ve been through my worried phase, my holding-my-breath phase. Now I’m in my let’s-just-rip-off-the-Band-Aid-and-get-it-over-with-please phase.
One of the most interesting things I read this week was the transcript of an Ezra Klein interview with Sarah Longwell, political consultant and founder of the Bulwark, who has conducted hundreds of focus groups with thousands of voters since the 2016 election. (I’ve gifted y’all the NYT article so you can read it.)
It was a fascinating conversation, focused mostly on how people think about what’s happening with U.S. politics from someone who understands people and voters more than most of us.
There were two key points I took away from the conversation. The first is this: A lot of us “news seekers,” those of us who stay informed and maybe care a little too much, think the enemy sits at the opposite end of our political beliefs. But, as Klein pointed out, we have more in common with our polar opposites than we think:
“The primary divide in politics, I always think, is between interested and uninterested. The hard-core left and the hard-core right, MAGA, the liberals, resistance, whatever it is, they’re all interested. They’re all following some media source constantly. But a lot of voters don’t like politics. And they’re not that interested.”
Having mostly always been overly interested (I began my newspaper journalism career in middle school), I’ve long been fascinated with those who aren’t. Longwell thinks characterizing these people as low-information voters is unfair, instead describing them as people “who are just not sick in the head like us, who are not following everything, who don’t let their nervous systems be hijacked on a daily basis by the vicissitudes of political wrangling.”
I’ll admit, most of my life, I’ve struggled to understand these people, though I know and love plenty of them.
But where do they get their information? How do they decide who to vote for?
This brings me to my second point. Increasingly, the answer to these questions, per Longwell, is … they don’t know.
Many of us used to get our news from a source, maybe even one or two sources. Now, many of the so-called “news receivers” have no idea where their information comes from because it just arrives through the feeds. Longwell says:
“They’re scrolling. They’ve got their favorite cooking influencer, or they’re scrolling on Instagram or TikTok — an algorithm-driven information environment where they mostly want basketball or sports. But then there’s Stephen A. Smith talking about politics.”
She describes the bleed-over from culture to politics as a “vibe” that washes over them.
As a former journalist, this sets off all kinds of alarm bells for me. If we don’t know where our information comes from, how do we know it’s true? Yes, many news organizations have a bias, but that bias is more apparent than the cesspool showing up in our feeds.
But I think it’s important to acknowledge something Longwell didn’t say: even the well-informed can be hijacked by the feed. As much as I consider myself a news seeker and have sources I go to daily, I’m not as immune to the “vibe” as I’d like to think.
So I guess my internal winds have shifted again even as I write this piece.
Again, I don’t have all the answers, but I’d love to hear where you’re at and how you’re feeling.
Here’s what else I wrote on Almost Sated in October
The power of one. And 23 million.
I wrote about my last-minute, mad scramble to finish 200 postcards to infrequent Texas voters and why I still believe in the power of ordinary people to make a difference.
Oddly I’m feeling okay with my body right now
This is the longest I’ve gone without exercising consistently, thanks to an Achilles injury that’s been plaguing me for far longer than I’d have liked. In the past, this inactivity would have sent me into a spiral of anxiety about gaining weight. This time, I’m giving myself permission to rest without feeling like I need to make up for it.
‘It’s not about being less big’
I talked with Christina Hall, a non-diet nutritionist in Barbados, about how culture shapes our beliefs about food, health and body size. We explored everything from the country’s history of slavery and food scarcity to the growing influence of Western beauty standards and GLP-1 medications. The interview was a reminder that so much of what we consider personal preference or individual choice about body size is shaped by the culture around us.
Looking ahead
It’s hard to think too far beyond November 3 right now. By the time you hear from me again, we’ll have an outcome. Well, maybe we’ll have an outcome. Hopefully, we’ll have an outcome?
Take care of yourself.
Let me know how you’re keeping your nervous system in check.