Just like that, it was over.
After being inundated with negative information from both sides seemingly since the last election, I was able to wade through the garbage and cast my ballot.
I walked out of the polling place at 7:15 a.m. with a sense of relief. It’s over, at least it is on my end. It may be weeks before we know the outcomes of the presidential race, but in my mind, I’ve closed the door.
The information overload has been nothing short of ridiculous. For months, I’ve dropped a load of election junk mail in my recycling bin before the mail entered my home. Is this really an effective way of communicating with voters? I think some printing company dreamed up a scheme a few years back to print cards that try to scare the heck out of vulnerable voters. It has since turned into a monster that clogged up the pipeline in an already beleaguered United States Postal Service. Regular mail that people actually want and need was delayed because of this absolute rubbish.
I blame this country devolving into hurling insults instead of ideas on the advent of social media. It’s when people thought they were 10-feet tall and bulletproof if they were sitting behind their keyboard or hurling insults from their handheld devices. Like minds pick up on the thread and Facebook sells advertising to make money off of what some moron in his mom’s basement is saying.
Then came the big money. With all the problems this country admittedly has, why are we allowing billions and billions of dollars to be wasted on something like this, largely without limits. Imagine if that money went, instead, to curing cancer (if the pharmaceutical industry will allow it)? I know America is supposed to be a free market economy, but this is truly getting ridiculous.
I was thinking as I left my polling place that I could have some closure now. I was awakened at 1:15 a.m. this morning by a political text. My phone rang all weekend. My wife and I were watching TV over the weekend. At the sixth political ad, I grabbed the remote an turned off what my father referred to as “the idiot box.” As I fired up my vehicle, a political ad was playing on the radio.
“Ha! I’m done with you,” I exclaimed. I turned the station and before I returned home, another political ad started. The radio is off for today.
The next couple weeks could be tense in America. Not for me. I’m done with it. Someone is going to win, and somebody is going to lose. Plywood and fences are being furiously installed in some of our biggest cities. Shame on anyone who is the reason that has to happen.
Let’s move on and start being Americans again.