Saturday, October 19, 2024

Stop though Not in the Name of Love

We (or at least I) have reached the point in the election cycle where I spend a lot of time responding to text messages with "STOP" or "STOP2END" or some variation of one or the other. 

For national political campaigns that are forecast to have spent almost sixteen Billion dollars (American dollars) that money has to come from somewhere, and it does: mostly you and me (though I'm not always sure about you) but when compared to the largesse of Elmo Elon Musk, we are pikers., my friend.  

He and the plutocrats and oligarchs who control so much of this country, and the world, have the money so they have the power and they do with it what best suits them. I'm neither surprised nor angered by this. We all operate from self-interest, or should. And Musk's choices aren't the only ones that cause raised eyebrows but I digress.

As the presidential campaigns wind down the tenor and tempo of solicitation text messages increases and we've now arrived at the point that I am weaning myself off of everybody's mailing lists. I mean, sorry but if you need my twenty-five bucks to get elected, there's a lot more wrong with our system than just the Electoral College if you follow my drift. 

Besides, I get uncomfortable when folks running for elected office beyond my niche in Middle Earth ask me for money. I'm pretty sure Rick Scott, a Senator from Florida, is actually Gollum from Lord of the Rings, the resemblance to me is striking, but I don't live in Florida and already know I don't like out-of-state people telling me how to vote in Connecticut much less donating to candidates in places I don't live.

I'm sure the causes are pure and true or as much as they can be in the world in which we now live where situational ethics and transactional immunity seem to be used in the same sentences repeatedly and copiously. And yet I remain unmoved.   

Someone told me it's called 'donor fatigue.' Maybe, I just know that it's closing time. And I don't want another drink, I only want that last one again.   
-bill kenny

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