This post is being written eight days before Election Day 2024. And while I follow some of the news on my Washington Post app, it’s not a topic I enjoy discussing; it leads to anger. And at my housewarming, there will be one rule: no election talk. It’s just such a heavy topic, way more than previous elections.
And that’s all I’ll say about it, except that if there was ever a time to watch a lighthearted take on a close election, it’s now. So after a busy week, I curled up on my couch and browsed through Amazon Prime, and I found Swing Vote, which I’d seen in a theater the night it was released.
Swing Vote stars Kevin Costner as Bud Johnson, an irresponsible but affable single father to his much more astute 12-year-old daughter Molly. He works as an egg inspector at a New Mexico plant, and his hobbies include fishing, playing guitar in a Willie Nelson tribute band, and drinking copious amounts of fermented hops. In short, he’s the face of America.
Molly’s been learning a lot about the voting process in school and has been urging the apolitical Bud to vote, even going so far as to register for him. On Election Day, he promises her he’ll meet her at the polling site. But he gets fired from his job, hits the nearest bar, gets drunk, and passes out. Molly waits for hours on end, and toward the end of the voting window, she sees the poll worker’s fallen asleep, so she tries to vote for him. A nearby janitor accidentally trips over the wire that connects the voting booth to the outlet, and as a result, the vote doesn’t get counted.
As it turns out, the election comes down to a single vote: Bud’s. Election officials tell him he’ll recast his vote in ten days, and the humor comes down to how both Presidential candidates will try to court his support. On one side, we have Andrew Boone (Kelsey Grammer) for the Republicans and Donald Greenleaf (Dennis Hopper) for the Democrats. I laughed at the ads in which each candidate flips his position, which aren’t too far removed from how politicians flip-flop; Greenleaf’s ad in which he reserves his position on illegal immigration is sadly too much like the controversial discussions happening now. Same deal with Boone’s abortion PSA. Now the pro-single part: while Bud is a heavy drinker and all-around lunkhead, he really does his love daughter, who plays the role of parent. There is a hint at a romantic subplot; the situation regarding Bud attracts all kinds of media attention, and one reporter, Kate Madison befriends Molly in hopes of finding out how Bud ended up being the swing vote. There’s a scene where the three of them go bowling, and they seem like a family. However, the ambitious Kate really would have nothing in common with Bud. And Molly’s mother…well, let’s say that despite Bud’s drinking and unemployability, he is the better parental candidate.