Is it over? Maybe? I know COVID-19 is still here; lingering in the air like burnt popcorn. But this year’s elections? Alas, have all those campaigns shrunk back into the gutters from whence they came? Has it all finally come to an end?
Well…no, it hasn’t. On the White House front, Herr Trump hasn’t – won’t – concede! So, as the nation eagerly awaits his administration’s demise, I feel certain of one thing. NO MORE FUCKING POLITICAL EMAILS!
Or at least fewer of them. American politics descended into the morass of anger and hate years ago; becoming a subset of demonology. Whereas I was once highly engaged in political campaigns – at least as a voter and eager news watcher – I have grown as cynical as most everybody else. While some relatives, friends and acquaintances of mine supplanted images of themselves on Facebook with their preferred candidate, I quickly began deleting large numbers of political-oriented emails from my daily inbox. I didn’t truly read them anyway. With so much personal family drama and job seeking these past few years, I often found myself with little time to read what I really wanted. I know political campaigns need more money than substance to function. It most cases it’s like one giant episode of the Kardashian clan. Is there a purpose to any of this?
The frequent opponent-bashing is my biggest grievance. How is it that sullying the reputation of your adversary has become more important than highlighting your own record? If you can do no better than slaughter the other person in effigy, why are you seeking this particular office?
That’s why many of my fellow Americans have grown cynical and pessimistic right along with me. They see the futility of it all. It makes no sense. Candidates for public office should always begin by detailing their own accomplishments and criticize their rivals at the very end – and only if they have the facts to substantiate their claims.
But with the close of the 2020 election season – from the presidency on down to local sheriff – I hope my email inbox won’t get stuffed with myriad political emails; the kind I either just simply delete or send to the spam folder – requests to sell me a reverse mortgage, ads for Chinese Viagra and offers from lonely Ukrainian housewives to be mine forever (although the latter two can seem enticing).
Regardless, I feel we all can move forward – until… AAAH!!! 2024!!!
Chief Writing Wolf 
Unfortunately, this is the nature of mud-slinging politics. To gain traction in th media, you must be bold, brash and often outrageous or disgusting. When you don’t have charisma and achievements to spout eloquently from the podium, choose mud-slinging as many Politicians do.
Yes, anyone running for public office has to be commended somewhat at least for their courage. It takes quite a bit of backbone to put one’s self into such an open forum where they become targets for criticism as easily as they become subjects of praise. But it can be a small step from confidence to arrogance. Often that is dependent upon the viewer. Some people I know said George W. Bush was self-confident and Barack Obama was arrogant; whereas I saw it the other way around.
I don’t know how the political environment is in Australia, but in the U.S. it seems mud-slinging has become the first course in a campaign. We need to remove politics from public service and reinstate the service.
Hear hear! I do agree. Ban the mudslinging. We want to hear good policy! Australia is going the way of the US, just on a much smaller scale and to a less vehement degree and without the guns, of course.
I never found Obama arrogant. A passionate Republican must have said that?
I heard a few people say Obama was arrogant; one of whom was a close friend. It’s all in personal perception.
That is right, Alejandro and one of the perplexities of human interactions. Two people can hear the same words and have entirely different reactions.