Americans are asked to follow elections as though they are an endless competition: Who is ahead, who stumbled, whose clip went viral? The question that interests me most comes afterward: What happens when the campaigning ends, and governing begins?
A recent conversation with Dana Bash, CNN’s chief political correspondent, brought that question into focus. Her forthcoming book with David Fisher, The Elections That Changed the World: Fifteen Pivotal Moments That Shaped How We Live, out Sept. 22, explores choices whose consequences reached far beyond the people making them. Our discussion moved from those historic moments to her journalism journey, connected by a question about how we understand decisions that shape the next generation.
I opened with a question many of us have asked: Does my vote really matter? Bash’s answer was unequivocal: “Your vote does matter.” What voters cannot always know is how much it will matter, or how far its effects will reach across generations and national borders.
That is what stayed with me. We tend to treat election night as the conclusion, when it is really the beginning of living with our choice. With the midterms approaching, that distinction feels particularly relevant. When I asked Bash what she was watching most closely, she pointed to economic frustration and its effect on turnout. My takeaway was simple: Our choices this November will matter beyond election night.
The book also asks us to broaden our understanding of what an election can be. Bash discussed Martin Luther King Jr.’s selection to lead the Montgomery Improvement Association, the organization behind the Montgomery bus boycott. A community leadership choice helped place him at the forefront of a movement that would transform America.
Her account made me reconsider the elections we routinely overlook. School boards, local government, and community organizations shape daily life. Their decisions may never lead a national broadcast, yet their consequences can endure.
Dana Bash and Ariella Noveck (Credit: Ariella Noveck)
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Dana Bash and Ariella Noveck (Credit: Ariella Noveck)
That relationship between leadership and lasting influence also emerged in our discussion of Golda Meir. Bash described Meir’s work on behalf of the Jewish state long before she became prime minister, including her ability to make Israel’s case to Americans. Later, when I asked which historical figure would have been her toughest interview, Bash chose Meir.
From someone who has spent her career questioning political leaders, it was a revealing answer. I found myself thinking about how much a leader’s earlier work can tell us. A polished campaign creates familiarity. A record shows how someone responded to pressure and defended principles when doing so carried a cost.
Looking closely at that record matters because political choices can also have devastating consequences. Discussing the Nazi Party’s electoral gains in Germany, Bash distinguished between being unable to foresee the full horror that followed and being able to recognize danger. “It was probably knowable that it wasn’t gonna end well,” she said.
For Jewish communities, that history makes questions of political power inseparable from safety and belonging. It also made me wonder whether researching these stories had left Bash more hopeful or concerned about democracy. She chose hope, pointing to the American Constitution.
“There’s really nothing like our constitution,” she told me.
I share that confidence in our constitutional framework. Confidence must come with a willingness to defend its limits, including when they frustrate our preferred party. A constitutional principle loses its force if we invoke it only against an opponent.
Hearing how Bash approaches these histories made me curious about the career that shaped her perspective. She started at CNN as a library assistant in the videotape library, aspiring to become a producer. Having watched her father’s career at ABC News, she initially resisted journalism’s unpredictable demands. An internship changed her mind.
I recognized that discovery, having found my own path through an internship at ABC News. We also discussed the work viewers rarely see and the teams behind every broadcast, before turning to how dramatically news gathering has changed.
Social media has changed campaigning, too, with updates reaching voters in real time from candidates, influencers, and sources beyond traditional newsrooms. Bash called the change “night and day.” For me, that expanding access makes verification and context more important, not less. More information does not automatically mean greater understanding.
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When we returned to the question of whether one vote matters, Bash connected it to something larger than any single election: the consequences for generations to come. “You just don’t know it before you do it,” she told me. “So go do it.”
It is also an assignment. Before giving anyone power, we should examine what that person intends to do with it. Election night will tell us who won. The decisions that follow will tell our children what we chose.
Ariella Noveck is a journalist specializing in antisemitism and Middle East affairs, with extensive experience covering Jewish communities worldwide. She can be followed on X and Instagram @AriellaNoveck
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
