I Think I’d Like to Be Left Alone

Everyone has suffered during the past political campaign. Your email inbox and lists of text messages piled up. Your social media was clogged with urgent appeals and outrage. Everyone’s emotions were stirred by the candidates, their handlers, their allies, and their opponents.

No one was safe. Even if you lived your life following scrupulous analog lines — no digital anything — you were inundated with messages. Yard signs, billboards, leaflets, door knockers, and TV and radio ads. Everyone wanted your eyes and ears glued to a message that enraged.

If you were even slightly digital and eschewed social media, your email and messages piled up. The websites of newspapers were filled with campaign stories that aroused your anger.

The worst of all were the appeals for money. Sure, there was some issue as a hook, but behind it was always, always, money. Please contribute. Pay what you can. We only ask $5.00. Weekly. Monthly. Forever.

Whether your candidate won or not, you are probably feeling campaign burnout. If your person won, you want to move on to them actually doing the things promised. If your person lost, you just want to move on.

I just want to be left alone for a while. Perhaps a long while.

But no. No matter how many “unsubscribe” buttons I push, no matter how many times I reply “STOP”, no matter what I do, they just keep coming. Please, please, just one more donation. Perhaps just a crust of a gift. A few pennies.

Bullshit!