Election Nonsense
Just short of a week ago, we finally had the long-anticipated, long-awaited national election of our president. For the last year or so, there has been a rising crescendo of ads full of political rhetoric and posturing, claims and counter-claims, debates and agreements. Towards the end, for the last three weeks or so, there were so many political ads running on television and radio that you just could not get away from it. I think I wore out the buttons on my car radio, flipping channel to channel when the ads would start between songs. I only watched enough television to get the news and weather, with my finger on the mute button the entire time, so I could at least turn off the sound even if I couldn’t turn off the picture. And the ads were ugly. Very very ugly. Enough mud was slung to bury a midwestern city.
But it didn’t stop there, of course. On facebook, there were continual postings of pictures and posters and comments, from both sides, from many of my friends. It got to the point that I had to hide certain people so I wouldn’t see their nonsense. And I was not the only one of my friends who hid people. By the time we actually got to vote, the level of frustration and anger was pretty high.
Now, five days after the election, I noticed one of my downstreet neighbors had put up some new signs. The guy with the yard of dirt and a constantly changing pile of construction debris growing and decreasing like a living thing under the spruce tree that shades his house. The guy who’d had more Romney signs than yard space for the last year. That guy. He had replaced his Romney signs with three that say FIRE OBAMA. I had seen some of these signs around town, as part of the overall political signage that was everywhere. I can appreciate the sentiment, and that the guy has an opinion. But dude. It’s too late. Let it go. Time to move on. Surely your energy could be spent better. Perhaps in seeding that dirt-pile you call a lawn.
I think what I find oddest is that all of this political posturing in the last weeks, heck, even in the last months, is a pointless waste of money. In realistic terms, 93% of the population are decided voters. The ads, signs, facebook squabbling, and bar arguments are not going to change anyone’s mind. Politics is like religion in that way; for whatever irrational reason, we believe what we believe, and that is that. I don’t believe that there truly are “undecided” voters out there, and that whirlwind trips through a state by a candidate, seven political ads on every commercial break, and a carpeting of yard signs are going to change anyone’s mind. I think about the billions of dollars that were spent financing campaigns, both on the national and local level, was money poorly spent. There are so many other, more valuable, uses the money could have gone to.
I’m glad it’s over. I think this is one of the worst political season I remember in my adult lifetime. It was just overwhelmingly ugly. I think America can do better.
Now, if I could just get Mr. Dirt-Yard to take down his signs and go back to the business of life, that would be great!
