I can tell we’re getting closer to the general election in a little over two weeks: We’re being flooded with TV ads and mail flyers urging us vote for this candidate or that candidate. Campaign signs that have been lining our roads since September have started multiplying. Some even list multiple candidates, usually for seats in the state legislature, as we tend to have more than a single representative for each House district. (The New Hampshire House has 400 seats and the state Senate has 24 seats for a total of 424 seats, making it one of the largest legislatures in the world behind only the UK Parliament with a total of 1447 seats and Congress with a total of 535 seats.)
TV ads are close to reaching saturation, with ads for Presidential, Gubernatorial, and Congressional candidates displacing ads for the local Tractor Supply Company store, John Deere dealership, new and used car dealers, and New Hampshire-based furniture stores. It makes me spend more time doing anything but watching TV. The ads at this point are annoying rather than informative, as most people have already made up their minds. The ads and flyers won’t change their minds. But we’ll still be swamped with both.
The number of campaign robocalls has also exploded, with the WP Mom receiving a couple of dozen calls a day. (She still has a landline, so it isn’t surprising. I have received a few on my cell phone, but it’s been sporadic. The robocalls I usually get are for extending the warranty on the trusty Ram 1500 or scammers trying to take my money.)
The other thing I have been avoiding like the proverbial plague has been the TV news, or at least the first 10 minutes or so because it is all politics all the time, particularly if it’s one of the network newscasts. They make we want to throw hard objects at the TV screen, something that would upset the WP Mom to no end. (That happens almost all the time, but more so during election season.
Election Day can’t come soon enough for me.
