Campaign Telephone Calls

This time of the year all across the country there are many elections to be conducted for most offices, excluding the presidency (That one is in November of 2016). As in most democracies, money drives the elections. The candidates with the most money contributed to their campaigns have a big advantage over those who have not the financial backing to conduct a highly visual campaign. I think that the amount money spent to get elected is obscene.  If buying elections was the goal of democracy, then we might say that our campaigning is perfect. But in a democracy, the best candidate is supposed to be noticed and elected. I think that rarely happens here and in other democracies.

How automated and high tech are these campaigns today? Well, I frequently get robo computer calls that expect me to listen to a computer which tells me why I should vote for a  particular candidate or issue on the ballot.  I doubt many people are convinced by that kind of computer generated telephone campaign, but then the real purpose of them is to just say the candidate's name to imprint it on the voters mind.  In that respect it is annoyingly effective. What is outrageous is that many of the computer calls arrive at dinner time, when the politicians know most of us are at home after work and available to take their calls. We have a "do not call"  list in the United States that one can put him or herself on to block any commercial calls from getting through to a person who does not want to listed to commercial calls. But guess who the politicians exempted from the block when they created the law that blocks annoying calls.? Yep, political calls are one of the few categories that are exempt from "do not call" blocking. No politician ever passes a law that inconveniences him or her self.

I dislike the live person campaign calls to my home too. In those instances a candidate pays other people to call and to pretend to understand the issue for which they want the voter to side with them.  Most of the callers are teenagers paid a minimum wage to make the calls. Teenagers understand little about politics. I even get calls made from my former state of Louisiana asking me to vote in those elections, even though I have lived in Oregon for four years and can't vote in Louisiana elections. Maybe the same people who update those kinds of call lists also are the ones who also update our Microsoft Windows operating systems. They are, uh, a little behind the ball. No matter how many times I tell them that , "I don't live in Louisiana and can't vote in your election. Take me off your call list.", I still get plenty of those calls.

On those occasions when I answer the phone and am asked to participate in "a poll" about the election (the polls are just questions asked to maneuver a voter to agree with the caller's position in order to persuade the voter to vote the way the caller's candidate wants) I try to get the caller "off script" with my answers. It's a bit of revenge for intruding on my privacy at home with political campaign calls.  I never let them  think I agree with their candidate or issue.

I think next time I get a call I'll just tell them that if they give me a $100 I' ll vote whatever way they want me to. That should chase them away. Oh, maybe it won't. After all, it's politics.