What to Drink on Election Night

In America, Election Day and drinking go together like gin and tonic, like Jack and Coke, like waking up the morning after elections and swallowing twice the recommended dose of ibuprofen. In our day—by which I specifically mean today, Nov. 8, the climactic point of an historically putrid campaign season—American citizens have greater reason than ever to seek adult refreshment. It’s the patriotic thing to do, as it involves participating in a national tradition older than the nation itself.

“Treating the public to alcohol at elections was a colonial custom borrowed from England,” noted psychopharmacologist Ronald K. Siegel writes in his book, Intoxication: The Universal Drive for Mind-Alerting Substances. George Washington failed to respect this tradition in his 1755 run for colonial Virginia’s House of Burgesses. Voters rebuked his lack of hospitality. Bravely refusing to make the same mistake twice, Washington embraced business as usual. In 1758, Siegel writes, “Washington gave away 144 gallons of rum, punch, wine, hard cider, and beer; he received 307 votes, better than 2 voters per gallon.” The rest is advanced placement U.S. History.