That Empty Feeling

The Onion: “Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are”.

There’s definitely some truth in this, and it’s something I recall from the aftermath of the 2004 campaign as well. Both elections went through a long phase where, to me, the focus on the race was primarily annoying — it doesn’t really involve writing on the topics I’m most interested in, and it narrows conversation into an unfortunate two-sided combat. But when you get down to the wire for the last couple of months, it’s thrilling despite all that and winds up sucking up a huge amount of emotional energy. Even being pretty tangentially involved in the whole thing, knowledge of the stakes and a sense of having some role to play winds up occupying a lot of time. Then when it’s done, there’s a sense of a bit of a void.