Elementary School and the 1988 Presidential Election

In 1988, I was in 2nd grade. I didn't know a whole lot about presidential elections, but I knew I supported Michael Dukakis over George Bush. I didn't know why I supported Michael Dukakis. I got this opinion from my parents. To this day, I don't know exactly why I feel the way I do about certain things as opposed to the way I do about other things. I wonder how arbitrary it is to have the opinions I have, and if I had just been born in another part of the world, how normal it would feel to believe, say, and do things that I currently find unthinkable. In fact, what if I had been born up the block and around the corner, in a similar symmetrical suburban-style house, to the parents of a kid I knew quite well growing up. I had a political discussion once with this strange, awkward kid named Michael where I tried to espouse my belief that Dukakis should be the next president of the United States of America. He informed me that if Dukakis were to be elected, he would "cover the sidewalks with poopie and pee pee," and that George Bush should become the president.

I was jealous of my sister, who was in 5th grade. Her entire class made campaign posters and buttons. They also came up with catchy, and inflammatory, slogans. For some reason, most of the kids were Bush supporters. I come from an overwhelmingly liberal area, so I find it hard to believe that everyone got their positions passed down from their parents. Maybe it was because Bush was leading in the polls. Or maybe it was the slogans. The Bush supporters were chanting "Dukakis is a duke, and dukes make me puke." All the Dukakis supporters were able to come up with was "Bush is a bush, and who wants to vote for a bush." So of course, Bush won the mock school election.