Electioneering is Wearying

“It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”  Sir Winston Churchill

Maybe it’s the constant haranguing from bloviating talking heads on TV. It could be the often vacuous statements political candidates of every stripe make while chasing after the mountain of cash they need to buy enough votes to get them elected. It’s entirely possible that the hot, hot summer we citizens of Farmington and Farmington Hills just endured has melted my brain a little.

Whatever the cause, my head is weary. While personally and professionally I have enormous … some would call it amorous … feelings for modern technology, it’s driving me crazy. We can’t escape it: The constant pulsing of news and opinion just keeps pounding into our heads.

Wherever you stand in the political spectrum―left, right, up, down―it doesn’t matter. You have to be careful about what TV channel you watch, what newspaper or magazine you read, what websites you surf or you’ll wind up getting blasted with something to offend you. Heck, just the other day I was reading the results of a comparison test between two very limited edition, expensive motorcycles and there, buried down in the fourth paragraph, the gearhead author took a swipe at the Tea Party. Really, says I? Does it ever stop?

We no sooner got our current President elected than a stampede of Republican would-be candidates began carving out niches and positions to bolster their hopes for an election almost four years into the future. Four years, people! Take a deep breath, will you?

I’m exhausted by news media commentators constantly haranguing us with conviction about future events guaranteed to occur if this thing or that thing is passed or not passed by one of our government agencies. Of course that begs the question: If they’re so smart, why ain’t they rich? Did any of those financial analysts who so sagely flap their jaws every day buy Apple or IBM in the early 70’s? No? Why not? You’re so very good at telling me what I should do. Could you please shut up for a while, and let me think?

in Farmington and Farmington Hills, plus the apparently uncontested mayor slot for the Hills should, hopefully, not involve the level of shouting that surrounds our national and state-wide contests. Even though for the first time in recent memory there appears to be quite a few more candidates in the Farmington race than there are open seats for, I’m begging that the volume level of campaigning won’t disturb the peace I so crave.

Sure, both cities have important issues to confront, not the least of which being how to maintain the level of services we’ve come to expect with a much diminished pair of coffers. Thankfully, few if any of the candidates will likely claim their opinions were personally delivered by God as several presidential hopefuls have. Nor will their positions change as frequently as the ocean tides like so many other national contestants do while pandering to one voting bloc or another.

I long for election day, November 8, when at least until the 11 o’clock news comes on and the predictors predict the winners, everyone will pipe down for awhile. Of course following those few quiet hours, the whole electioneering process begins again, this time in earnest, during which we all be beaten to a pulp for a full year until the next election.

Make it stop! My weary head just can’t take much more.

C.R.P.