Santa Cruz County struggles to come to grips with Election Day anxiety

The chilly winter mists have yet to descend on Santa Cruz County, but you don’t have to be a particularly talented empath to notice that something is in the air, some intangible, almost “Game of Thrones” sense of foreboding and gloom. 

Could it be the jarring dark-at-5 time change? The end of baseball season? A Halloween hangover? Contemplation of the sad, empty days ahead until the Chili Cook-Off at the Boardwalk comes around again next fall?

Nah, it’s the thing on Tuesday.

Election Day anxiety has become an inescapable feature of modern American life, omnipresent and pervasive, like a barking dog in the distance, a neighbor’s floodlight in your bedroom window. It might be tolerable if it remained at a steady-state level of distraction, but Tuesday marks the big moment when the hopes and dreads become real, and the ongoing melodrama of American politics reaches a maddening crescendo. 

On Thursday, two days after the election, celebrated Santa Cruz poet Ellen Bass will be the featured guest at the Morton Marcus Poetry Reading at UC Santa Cruz, an annual tradition that goes back 15 years. The reading is not and has never been political nor partisan in nature under normal circumstances, but the presidential election of 2024 is nobody’s idea of normal.

What that means, as a practical matter, is that Bass is having to envision two different programs, based on what we might know of the election results come Thursday evening. 

“If we’re celebrating, it’s going to be easier,” said the former poet laureate of Santa Cruz County and one of Santa Cruz’s most prominent literary figures on the national stage (who is a Kamala Harris supporter). “But if we are in despair [at the reading], there are writers who have talked about the place of the arts in very hard times.”

Bass then cited Toni Morrison’s “no time for despair” reaction to another presidential election and Katherine Anne Porter’s essay from “Flowering Judas” as resources to stave off despair and to galvanize to action. Those thoughts, she said, are relevant regardless of how the election turns out.

“Even if Kamala wins,” she said, “there’s going to be a lot of chaos, and probably lives lost.”

Like many others in Santa Cruz County, I have also found a lot of anxiety and tension in day-to-day conversations that almost always veer into the political. Perhaps as a result of the shocking lessons of 2016, I have found few Harris supporters willing to express a conviction that she’ll win the White House, or even optimism. One prominent Santa Cruz public figure, who didn’t want to be identified, even expressed her certainty that Donald Trump would emerge victorious (not her preferred outcome), and that liberals/progressives are going to have to prepare for a period of chaos unprecedented in American history.

“People can’t help themselves talking about it,” said Sven Davis of Santa Cruz. “I don’t think they really want to, necessarily. But they’re having a hard time not thinking and talking about it.”

Davis has a solution, he thinks, albeit a temporary one. He will host an event on Tuesday, Election Night, at the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz. It’s called “Nail-Biter 2024,” a free variety show featuring live music and comedy, peppered with results of the election nationally and locally, as they come in. The vibe of the event will be apparent from the first approach, as Tom Noddy, the famous “Bubble Guy,” does his act in the Rio’s famous glassed-in ticket booth on the sidewalk out front. The theme of the event will not be political, per se, but more a means to de-stress from the continuous election anxiety. The lobby will feature chair massages, micro-therapy sessions, and even worry beads. 

“I did not want to produce a rally or anything like that,” said Davis, a well-known emcee to local events. “I didn’t want it to feel partisan in any particular way, mostly because I really want to deemphasize that aspect of it.”

The purpose here is distraction. The music and comedy performances will not be political in nature, though Davis himself will be filling in the audience on election news as it unfolds between acts. Davis believes that people crave a break from the always-plugged-in drama of phones, computers and TV screens. 

“I really think that if you went down to the beaches that night, you’re going to find groups of people who’ve left their phones in the car just for a few hours of camraderie and peace on the beach. And when they get home, they can find out what’s gone on in the meantime. At this point, once everyone’s voted, it just doesn’t do anyone any good to obsess over the drip-drip-drip.”

“Nail-Biter” will be an event, said Davis, where, even in deep-blue Santa Cruz, Republican voters should feel comfortable, or at least not uncomfortable. The event will be about “distraction, entertainment and togetherness,” an attempt to imagine a world in which political differences aren’t so apocalyptic.

“No matter who wins the election,” he said, “we’re all going to have to learn how to operate as a country. Fifty percent of us are going to have to come to grips with the other 50% of us. So, yeah, this is a small step in that direction.”

For Ellen Bass, her appearance at the Morton Marcus Poetry Reading offers up a slightly different brand of healing, a reminder of poetry’s power to outlast the hot-headed political sentiments of the moment. 

She quoted the Greek poet Sappho’s famous line about poetry, “Mere air, these words/ But delicious to hear.”

“And I think that’s what poetry is,” said Bass. “I mean, yes, we write it down, but essentially it’s oral, it’s just air and sound. And we think of it as so evanescent, and yet it lasts well beyond buildings and highways and cars.”

“Nail-Biter 2024” takes place Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Rio Theatre. It’s free.

The Morton Marcus Poetry Reading, featuring Ellen Bass, takes place Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Merrill College Cultural Center on the campus of UC Santa Cruz, sponsored by The Humanities Institute. It’s free. 

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