Why Election Day is the best day of the year

If there's one thing all Americans can agree on in this season of division and disunity, it's that 2016 has been just the worst.

As the entire world watched in disbelief, the world's mightiest country went hurtling toward the abyss, dragged down by that most unusual of public figures, a man who becomes more and more repugnant with every new thing we learn about him. As elderly former congressman and Twitter ninja John Dingell tweeted two weeks ago, "You're not supposed to wish your days away when you're 90, but [Election Day] honestly cannot come soon enough."

Now it's finally over, and America can take a long, hot shower and scrub the stench of this year off ourselves. But believe it or not, on the last day of the campaign, there are actually plenty of reasons to feel good.

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It may be clichéd at a time like this to quote Winston Churchill on democracy being the worst system of government ever devised except for all the others, but like most clichés it contains an important truth. Elections are inevitably consumed by trivial arguments, faux controversies, pointless speculation, and distracting non-issues. It's ghastly and disheartening and at times even terrifying. But at the end of it is something remarkable: We all cast our ballots, each counting the same as every other (yes, let's set aside the Electoral College). The young and old, the rich and poor, the smart and stupid, the kindliest grandmother and the most idiotic frat bro, all get to chime in. Just under 130 million of us did it four years ago; this year it will be higher.

That's not to say that more of us shouldn't vote, because we should. And we all ought to be angry about how difficult Republicans made it for some people to cast their ballot; when you see pictures of thousands of people waiting for hours on end in Columbus and know that it was no accident but part of a well-thought-out plan to suppress black votes, it should make your blood boil. But you should also take a moment to marvel at the commitment of the people who endured it, who waited and waited in the determination that their voices would not be stilled.

Even though early voting has extended Election Day over a couple of weeks, it remains a common act; there's nothing we do so collectively. And when you go to the polls, you may feel a touch of pride, the feeling that you've done something like a good deed with no expectation of personal reward. It's because you have. You've come together with your neighbors and participated in a collective act of civic duty and engagement. For a moment you were not just a consumer or a homeowner or a taxpayer but a citizen, assuming agency and helping remake and renew our system.

And you do it even though from a purely instrumental view, it's pointless. As any economist will tell you, there's no practical reason to vote. You're more likely to get hit by a bus on your way to the polls than you are to see your vote actually determine the outcome of an election even for a local office, let alone the presidency. Better to let everyone else vote while you stay home; that way you can reap whatever rewards might be had without incurring any effort.

But despite the cold logic of that formulation, we do it anyway. We feel that we should, that we owe it to our communities and our country. And we enjoy it. We like filling in that bubble or pulling that lever or punching that chad (I know, don't remind you) because it feels good. It makes us feel like this is our democracy, that we own a little piece of it.

That's not to deny that 2016 has been disheartening in so many ways, not least how Donald Trump has exposed and encouraged such a huge volume of resentment and hate. But guess what, liberals: If the polls are right and Hillary Clinton wins, that means you won the argument. Your inclusive coalition with its optimistic vision of what the country could be? That's the one that prevailed.

Yes, you wish no one at all would have responded to Trump's promises to build a wall, that no one would have dismissed his bragging about sexual assault as "locker room talk," that a torrent of misogyny had never rained down on Clinton, that those horrifying Trump rallies had never taken place, that so many hadn't felt emboldened to defy "political correctness" by letting all their most grotesque impulses out into the light. But in the end, their cause will have gone down to defeat.

We don't yet know what will happen to those sentiments, whether they will retreat back to the closet or continue to revel in their loud and proud openness. But the election can offer us a chance to start anew — not that we'll all put aside our differences and join hands in a spirit of common purpose (sorry, not gonna happen), but there's at least the possibility for a clean break after which something might change. If you despise what Donald Trump brought to this campaign, you can take solace in the fact that he was rejected — and that he'll now become the one thing he never, ever wanted to be: a loser.

If it takes that little bit of schadenfreude to make you see the bright side of Election Day, so be it. But you can be generous and simply honor the fact that this is the day we come together, all on the same level, to be citizens. The less we take it for granted, the more meaningful it will be.