Election Gripe #1

I get dozens of text messages a day from candidates, candidates’ friends, their puppies, their neighbors, and occasionally their moms. The messages are unfailingly desperate. We’re falling behind! They’re raising more money than us! And my favorite: You have to give us $100 before midnight tonight!

Because I’ve already donated, I get a steady parade of guilt trip texts. Do you realize how long it’s been since you’ve donated? They tell me the date.It’s shameful, I admit, to have gone from May 15, 2022, to today without forking over the second $100.

But here’s my deal. Desperation and guilt are repulsive. I know this because at least three boyfriends told me so. No one wants to give someone money because that someone made them feel bad and cheap and politically uninvolved and almost useless except for the faint hope their wallet might crack open one more time.

Give me a candidate who is hopeful, optimistic, and confident s/he will win, who invites me to be part of a winning team so together we can change the world. Remember Barack Obama and HOPE?

There’s a campaign playbook somewhere (several dozen copies floating around Wisconsin right now) that says pushing the desperation theme will work. The strategy includes bombardment. Hence the repetitive texts from other elected officials using quirky little fonts and lots of BOLD. A desperate text from Elizabeth Warren on behalf of our Democratic Senate candidate Mandela Barnes has the same negative impact on me as one from Bernie Sanders or Loretta Young.

Just STOP.

I’m big on electing Democrats. I’ve written 500 postcards to Get Out the Vote. They’re sitting on my desk at this very moment waiting to be mailed on October 17th. What I write on the postcards celebrates voting, thanks people for being voters, and reminds them to tell their friends and family to vote. It’s a message of community and camaraderie and I love writing them.

So, fellow Democrats, stop beating me over the head with hand-wringing, tear jerking, the world is coming to an end at midnight if I don’t give you cash texts. Try hope and zeal and belief in the power of everyday people to create change. Seriously, it’s a winning approach, I don’t care who tells you otherwise.

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Photo by Phil Scroggs on Unsplash