Campaigns frustrate voters

Thank goodness it's Election Day.

By now, most Americans are sick and tired of all the negative political advertising.

Television is saturated with so many political commercials this time of year that it's painful to watch.

In addition, we're flooded with postcards urging us to vote for this candidate or that candidate. We're hounded by phone calls from various candidates and issue campaigns.

To put it bluntly, we're being stalked by politicians who want our votes. And it gets worse every election.

By now, most of us feel we have targets on our backs and every politician is taking dead aim at us.

It's bad enough that we're bombarded with political signs on every street corner, but having to field phone calls from political campaigns every night is downright frustrating.

My friend Jay has decided to combat this assault on domestic bliss by recording a new message of his own, telling callers to "Press 2" if they are calling about the U.S. Senate race in Missouri, "Press 3" to talk about the constitutional amendments, "Press 4" for a donation and "Press 5" if they really have something to say that doesn't involve politics.

Jay even tells callers on his recorded message that he approved the "message."

We all would be well served by having such messages on our answering machines.

A lot of us would simply like to record a message to political campaigns saying, "Don't call us. We already know how we'll vote and your call only will make us less likely to vote for you."

Technology allows us to digitally record TV shows and then play them back, skipping over the commercials.

Some Americans probably wish we could simply skip over the entire political campaign season. Most of us can't fast forward quick enough to get to the end of the election campaigns.

It seems like every TV commercial break is taken up entirely with political ads. In most cases, candidates seem to be promoting themselves by throwing mud at their opponents.

Some people would say this is reality TV. But even reality TV shows, with all their gimmicks, wouldn't stoop to the level of political campaigns.

Well, they might stoop to that level but they wouldn't be able to get such shows on the air because TV executives know the public wants to be entertained rather than have to endure a migraine headache.

We all know that candidates have historically vilified their opponents. Mudslinging is nothing new. It's been a part of politics for centuries.

But today's technology has allowed candidates to intrude into our lives more, making it harder for us to avoid all the campaign rhetoric.

Missouri has a "No Call List." Unfortunately, it doesn't prohibit candidates and their armies of volunteers from ringing us up.

I figure the best way to combat such activity is to let these political workers talk to my teenage daughter. She'll hang up on such campaigners rather than cut into her quality phone time with friends.

Voters understand that, too.

Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.