WE live in a political battleground state. Regardless of which side of the aisle you favor, this is not a great thing. Since the middle of August we have been inundated daily with TV and radio ads, as well as one or more of the following:
- robocalls
- personal phone calls
- telephone opinion polls
- political mailings
- lawn signs
- people at the front door
- bumper stickers on cars.
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FOR those of you not living in a battleground state it’s difficult to get across to you how intrusive*, annoying & wasteful this really is. I’ve never seen a presidential campaign like this one that diminishes the office of president and insults a voter’s intelligence with incessant gibberish and visual clutter. It’s quite something.
• • •
• • •
WHILE I trust that the election on Tuesday will put an end to this nonsense for now, I worry that this 2012 presidential election will become the prototype for all future elections. Because I fear that the lesson of this election is: if you want to make sure that no one gives a flying fig through a donut hole about who wins an election, bother the electorate every day until they are just too tired to care about it any more. Then railroad your candidate through.
• • •
[H/T to Pied Type for the YouTube link.]
[H/T to Carmine Coyote & his defunct blog, Slow Leadership, for the cartoon. Image & link removed because spammers could not leave it alone.]
[* Case in point: while writing this post yesterday afternoon I’ve received two phone calls. One was a real person who told me who to vote for and then hung up on me without so much as a thank you for listening or a goodbye. The other was a robocall from a doctor somewhere in Washington, D.C.]
[Further: Throughout the rest of the day I received two more unsolicited political phone calls. One was a robocall from a nurse in Chicago. The other was a robocall from an actor in CA.]
THE SPECTACLED BEAN 
Even here is solid-blue Massachusetts (or at least solid-indigo-with-only-a-hint-of-violet Massachusetts), we have been subjected to some battlegrounding over the senate race. But I know this only amounts to a fraction of the flood you’ve had. Yikes!
Have you seen reports of unemployment going down in October? The cynic in me attributes most of that to campaign-related jobs. There certainly has been a lot of money flowing somewhere.
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alejna, we’ve had the pleasure of presidential and state and local political calls. Which makes me think that you might be on to something re: October’s unemployment numbers. Hadn’t thought of that before.
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For a change I’ve not had any phone calls, robo or other. I guess that’s because I live in a solid-red state. In the last few days I’ve received a ton of mailings from candidates for local offices. I’ve know for a long time who I would vote for and the mailings won’t change my mind. To bad so many trees had to die this election cycle. On the bright side all of the campaign money spent on advisors, consultants, PR firms, lawyers, mailings, phone calls, tv ads, radio ads, and newspaper ads will temporarily boost our sagging economy.
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Mike, I’m looking forward to next week and a return to normalcy [if I might use Harding’s famous campaign slogan]. I’ve never seen so much waste and nonsense surrounding any election before. ‘Tis a bit much, imho.
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The phone has been ringing incessantly even though Missouri is not hotly contested. The main contest here is Clare McCaskill versus the nutjob who thinks women can’t get pregnant if they are legitimately raped. I will be very glad when this election is over and I, like you, fear it getting worse in the next one.
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Zazzy, I’m glad [but not really glad] that we aren’t the only state that is being inundated with political phone calls. Somehow that makes me feel a little better about things. Not much, but a bit.
And as for your nutjob, please get rid of him. He is an insult to all women everywhere– regardless of party or religious affiliation.
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It doesn’t look like he’ll get in office – at least this time. Even the party wanted to get him out of the race.
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Well, that’s good news.
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There was something on the radio this lunchtime about that “legitimate rape” thing, but I didn’t hear what it was all about. Off to Google now. Whatever and whoever, I agree with Ally (and probably most people), get him out.
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Polly, his remark was stupid, to say the least.
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It’s bad enough here – cannot imagine what you guys are pounded with.
Congrats on writing the perfect election year post. Your underlined statements should be on huge billboards
(hardly watching TV at all – limiting blog reading….make it stop. make it stop. Too many angry people. Tues. cannot come soon enough)
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philosophermouse, thanks for the compliment. I’d love to see my sentences on billboards instead of the political stuff that is there right now. And like you, I’ve given up watching TV– & reading tweets. It’s all just too much right now.
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Much sympathy here (Colo.). I was sick of this campaign last January, while the Republican wannabes were still bashing each other. From there it has intensified to an almost intolerable level. I’m a stay-at-home retiree whose primary entertainment is TV. My only real connection to the world at large is my phone, which I dare not yank out of the wall, although I’ve been sorely tempted. Worse, I’m a registered independent. We haven’t had more than 2 points of daylight between the two candidates since all this began, so it has been intense from the beginning. I share your concern that this is going to be the norm for future elections and despair. So much money being spent that could be put to much better use elsewhere (create some jobs? help the Red Cross in NYC?). The only solution I can imagine is to reverse Citizens United.
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PiedType, the YouTube video that you posted yesterday got me thinking about how this election is different from previous ones. On a personal level, it’s been darned annoying. But on a societal level the biggest difference that I see is good ole Citizens United. And I don’t like it. Not. One. Bit.
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I live in a fairly blue state, but we’re still getting lots of robocalls, although mostly for state offices, where our governor race could go either way.
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Margaret, interesting that you’re getting robocalls, too. These robocalls must be like catnip to a cat for these politicians! They just cannot not use them.
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I did get a lot of laughs from the guy who called himself a “physical” conservative. I wonder what one of THOSE does? *smirk*
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That’s funny. Maybe it means that he doesn’t exercise very much– conserving his energy until it is needed.
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HAHA–well, he meant fiscal, but didn’t say it correctly. 😉
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so happy to be safely across an ocean. I vote in a non-battleground state and the same ward as Obama in Chicago. I have dutifully sent my ballot as many times as I could. :-). that’s the good part of voting in Chicago, the tradition for voting as many times as you want. at least it will soon be over, tho’ my stomachache may take some time to subside. in the meantime, unplug your phone!
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julochka, I’m glad to know that you’ve done your part for this election!
I wish that I could unplug our phone but we have some elderly relatives who can barely remember the phone number we have… let alone a different number attached to one of those new, weird cell phones! So our landline stays on, just in case…
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I do like that cartoon, and I adore lamb stew. 🙂
SO glad to live in California, where it is assumed that Obama will win, and no one cares what else I do. 🙂
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J, you are fortunate to be missing out on all of this. It is tiring– and disheartening– to say the least.
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I don’t live in a battleground state and I am besieged by phone calls. Most are for local politicians but the commericals are for the presidential race. Two more days!
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kate, two more days is my mantra right now. I’m more than ready for this to be over. Plus I’d like to start watching TV again sans political commercials. Wonder what they’re saying on the national news– which I haven’t watched in weeks?
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