Election 1976

     My other story about the woman at the agar factory who couldn't go home until she had gotten paid, gone to the bank, and then had cash to put gas in the car, I will call her Wilhelmina, is the anecdote about the day after Election Day 1976. It was a big presidential election year – Gerald Ford was the Republican candidate running against Democrat Jimmy Carter. I don't remember my co-workers and me talking about the election much – we probably laughed over the political jokes being told more than discussing any of the issues.

     The day after the election, however, Wilhelmina was very vocal in letting all of us know she had not gotten to bed until well after 3AM that morning – she had managed to get herself to work on time, but she was really dragging through the shipping department that day. Finally we asked why she had stayed up so late – I could not have imagined it was because of the election because Wilhelmina did not strike me as being particularly political.

     But she said she just had to stay up to see which candidate was going to be declared the winner. She had to!

     So then we had to ask because the answer was not obvious – which candidate was she rooting for? 

     "Jimmy Carter HAD TO WIN!” Wilhelmina answered – she was shaking all over.

     The election had really meant that much to her!

     What did she like about Jimmy Carter? I was dying to know.

     Jimmy Carter had to be the next President because Wilhelmina did not want Jerry Ford to win. Simple as that.

     And so why did she not like Ford?

     Jerry Ford was actually already in the White House as the current President – he was not elected to office, and his run in 1976 was the first time he was selected as the Republican candidate for President. Ford had been chosen by Richard Nixon to be Vice President in 1973 when Spiro Agnew resigned; and then less than a year later, in August of '74, Nixon himself resigned, and Jerry Ford became President.

     In the two years since then, Ford incurred the wrath of many Americans by pardoning Richard Nixon from any criminal charges that might be brought up against him in the future – mostly wrongdoing involving the Watergate Scandal during the 1972 election.

     This was exactly why Wilhelmina did not like him, and she stayed up most of the night to be sure Ford was not elected for a new term!

     One of us said, “Wow! Good thing you got out and voted!”

     Whereupon Wilhelmina looked at us as if we were crazy, “Oh I didn't vote! I never vote.”

     But she stayed up all night as if watching the TV until the last vote was counted had some power in it?

     There are people I know who don't vote for reasons of disdaining all of politics and not really being for anyone in or not in office; and there are people I know who do vote and firmly believe their votes don't really make a difference, but they do it anyway; but Wilhelmina standing there that day claiming how important it was to her that Carter be the next President but not being involved enough to do even the smallest act that she could toward making that happen – casting her single vote – that truly astonished me.

     For the record, and it is a rather revealing claim, to be sure, I voted for Jerry Ford that year. The very thing most Americans disliked about Ford – the pardoning of Nixon, was what endeared him to me – he put the healing of America and an end of the Watergate Scandal ahead of his own political future – I happen to like that in a President – even if he is a Republican. Ford was the only Republican candidate for President I have ever voted for. And I doubt that another will ever come along to impress me with actions the way Jerry Ford did.

     I did not tell Wilhelmina she missed her chance to knock out my vote at the ballot box.

168 20150617 Election 1976