‘Tis the season for political campaigns, and things are normal. Which is to say I am trying to figure out a way to hide from all the political ads on TV. It seems to me that signing on to an ideology of one side or the other really defeats the purpose of being an adult. Beyond that, it is just disconcerting to wade through all the animus that comes out in campaigns. A thought occurred to me that if people could return their completed ballots to their cable company or satellite provider, they should be able to opt-out of receiving any more political ads clear up to election day. That should be enough to motivate people to have a near 100% voter turnout.
A while back, I was talking to a friend of mine, Eileen Tudor-Wright, and asked her if she thought Trump won in 2016 because people figured he was the lesser of two evils. She said she once thought that, but after thinking about it more, she decided it was because more people figured out that Hillary was the evil of two lessers. I hadn’t thought about it that way, but she may be on to something. This time around the choice is even more ludicrous. Anyone who isn’t morbidly embarrassed that in a country of 330 million people, these two stunted buffoons are the best we have to pick from, needs to seriously rethink the state of affairs here. The only difference between a left wingnut and a right wingnut is on which side the nuts dangle. Speaking of wingnuts, my friend Abner Mality was talking to me recently. It seems to me that he would run for office if he thought he could get elected so I asked him if he would ever seriously consider it. He said he wouldn’t even know how to start. I told him he should just start by running for some entry-level elected office like the school board, or the city council, or the presidency. He asked if I really thought he could be president. I told him that stranger things have happened.
It is probably a natural outcome though. I don’t really see how anyone who is decent or well-adjusted would want to be president. I mean, it is a no-brainer that at least 100 million or so people are going to hate your guts. I believe that 40 percent of the population will always vote Democrat no matter what, and another 40 percent will always vote Republican no matter what. So that leaves elections to be decided by the 20 percent who have no core convictions and are influenced by whoever shouts the loudest. I’m reminded of something my mom always used to say: consider the source. There is no such thing as an unbiased observer these days it seems. You can hardly say anything without kicking a hornet’s nest, and the hornets are getting vicious. So stay safe. Stay sane. And think. And vote. Vote for the right person. Or the left person. Just hope it isn’t the wrong person. Good luck.
