YOU WANT MY WHAT!

YOU WANT MY WHAT!

(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/Frazer Chronicle)

Every day for the past three weeks or so, calls from high ranking officials, the President, the challenger, his wife, my Senator, my Congressman, a former President, and pollsters. To top the whole thing off, I’ve even gotten a couple of calls from my friendly bill collectors; thank God my dog hasn’t died yet.

 

Any more I hardly listen; I pick up to either silence, or break into the middle of a conversation and simply hang up. Am I tired, absolutely, can I do anything about it…..no, I suppose I’m sounding like kind of impotent bastard…..which I am. I’m going to put with this crap until November 6 at which time they, “the calls,” will magically stop. “I can hardly wait.”

 

This morning my wife pointed out an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about this lady in Mukwonago, a Milwaukee suburb, who like me, is sick and tired about all the calls she is getting. What made both my wife and I stop was the fact that one caller knew that this women had an absentee ballot, and why she hadn’t voted yet.

 

There was a recall election several months ago attempting to remove Governor Scott Walker from office, “which failed,” and pollsters had access to who voted…..and how they voted. That’s right, I voted to get the “dink” out of office thinking my vote was private…..but it wasn’t. I was shocked, the reasoning, it, the vote, was a different kind of voting, therefore was open to public viewing…..wow, wow.

 

Now these data base places can have access to “not how you voted,” but whether or not you voted, and if you applied for an absentee ballot. I’m sure the rest, (at this point) is guess-work as to how you voted. However gathering “cookies” from a computer, getting a list of the most recent books you have read, or which newspapers you read or the magazines in your trash can give one of these data base businesses a pretty good idea about which way you will vote.

 

MILLIONS IN CAMPAIGN SPENDING:

I get several pieces of political advertising every day, it’s disgusting, at least to me, it represents a huge waste of time, effort and money plus the fact that I am more than capable of making up my own mind about who to vote for. I watch, I listen and I read and after this, I throw out what I feel is nothing more than “feel-good” or “stroking” and I make up my mind.

 

There aren’t any last minute revelations that are a “game changer” for me, I have already methodically researched each candidate, and will vote for, who in my mind is the best person for the job. The last thing that would influence me in a Presidential election is whether the candidate is black, white, a Catholic, or a Muslim, I simply do not care, I base my opinion on fact, and what each candidate has said, and for how long they say the same thing about a particular issue, in other words, “no flip-flopping.”

 

 

 

I do not look on elected officials as a special “breed of cat,”  capable of making only just and righteous decisions, I realize that these people, in the public eye, stand tremendous scrutiny, they are probed, poked and are basically living in a looking glass.

 

It’s a life-style that comes with the territory of being a publically elected official, they know it, or at least they’d better know it, and they have to deal with it. For most of us, that is the big draw-back, being under the eye of a telescope no matter where you go, or what you do.

 

You picture is pasted on all sorts of advertising literature with your approval…..or not. Old school friends, mostly girls who are now women come right out of the wood-work in tell-all interviews, newspaper articles, or worse, in books written hastily, and often with the help of an imaginative ghost writer.

 

Do we need to keep an eye on our elected officials, “you bet your sweet little Bippy,”  these people are as flawed as any of us, in fact, maybe more so, they seem to have almost “unchecked” apatite’s when it comes to making good sound decisions…..”the wrong way.” They have so many chances to go astray that it’s no wonder they fall off whatever wagon their on.  But fall off they do, and we, as human beings seem to help them dust off, rearrange their cloths and allow the person to  go on with their job.

 

TOO MUCH AT STAKE TO ALLOW SHENANIGANS:

Every single election, from city dog catcher to the President of the United States, any event where people gather together, and appoint through their vote is important, it is a building block of what we are, how we collectively think, and how our democracy operates. Our system is the envy of much of the world today.

 

Polls, guesses, and projective predictions on who is a winner cuts out what our system is all about. We vote, and we wait for the eventual winner, the way our system is supposed to operate, it, waiting for the winner is the very best part of the process. I don’t care how you voted, and I won’t divulge how I voted, I am more than willing to wait for the morning paper to let me know who won.

 

Campaign reform…..absolutely, we need it, and we need it now, I could care how the Supreme Court rules, or what their opinion is, reform belongs in the hands of the electorate. We need to get a level playing field so that anybody with good ideas can run for public office, or for that matter…..anybody can run, even if they have lousy ideas.

 

These pollsters, data gathering companies, and super packs need to stop, forthwith. If a data gathering outfit can get information on whether or not you have an absentee ballot, how long do you figure it will take them to extract whatever information they want, “huh,” maybe…..forthwith.

 

Maybe the lady in Mukwonago let it slip to a neighbor that she hadn’t voted yet, and that person called a date company with that valuable info…..one never knows.