Whittling Away: Election campaigning makes me crabby

I have to admit that I’m getting tired of the political contests now being waged across this broad land of ours. They’ve been going on for a year or so and even though they’re, on a whole, a bunch of mostly attractive, fairly articulate millionaires, all of whom have all the solutions for our nation’s current, past and future problems, I’m getting sick of them. I keep asking myself, why don’t these people either get a job or do the one that they have now? A lot of these folks are elected officials, who’s in charge while they take a year or two off to go campaigning?

It’s getting harder and harder to avoid seeing the candidates in the media spotlight. To bypass their frequent appearances on television, I am now down to watching just QVC and the Cartoon Network. This hasn’t proved to be successful however since I’ve maxed out my credit cards and find much on the Cartoon Network that reminds me of the political fracas that I was trying to avoid.

I realize that as a good citizen, it’s my duty to be informed about the candidates so I can make an intelligent choice at election time and I haven’t missed voting since we worked so hard to get Mr. Lincoln elected. I do believe though that there’s a difference between informing someone about your qualifications and pummeling them about the head and shoulders with a media blitz that goes on and on and on and on. The thing that annoys me the most is the amount of money that the whole process just pours down the old dumper. I’m no economist but I bet one of those national commercials would buy the average poverty stricken American family a new Chevy, pay their rent and feed them well for a year or so. The amount of money spent on gas for RVs, buses and personal jets whizzing back and forth across the states, political signs flapping, could probably end homelessness in our country. The total cost of just the primary races could put a big dent in our National deficit which would help me sleep better at night.

Maybe it’s my interest in history that’s helping to contribute to my annoyance with the current political process. Again, I have no facts or figures at my fingertips but I’ll bet the brown speckled banana on my kitchen counter that the combined costs on getting the first 30 of our presidents elected wouldn’t add up to what’s been spent on the current primary races. To be fair, and I always try to be fair, when you divide the costs out over the number of candidates involved, it probably wouldn’t seem like a lot. I’ve kind of lost track as to how many candidates started the race a year or so ago, but if I remember right, it was two or three hundred, wasn’t it? They’ve narrowed the field down to a dozen or so, spent millions, interrupted my favorite TV shows, been the main topic on the news for weeks and still have at least forty states to go. I’m not looking forward to it.

Why don’t we have a national primary day? Everyone goes and votes for the candidate of their choice on the same day and get the beginning of the election cycle over with quickly. If we did that and limited the running for the office part to a month before the election, I think most of the citizens of this great country would be more interested in participating, the whole process is just getting too lengthy.

I don’t want to start my Christmas shopping when they start putting up the Christmas displays shortly after Labor Day and I don’t want to think about who I’d like to vote for to run the Nation two years before I get to vote. Call me crabby!

Thought for the week — The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. — George Bernard Shaw

Until next week, may you and yours be happy and well.

Reach Dick Brooks at Whittle12124@yahoo.com.