Vote Jerkface!

Hooray!  Election robo-calls to my office have begun!

Well, it is an even-numbered year.  So, these and every odd-numbered years are election seasons.  

Robo-calls suck.

An aspiring politician simply needs to record a message once, using at most 5 minutes out of their day, and then they turn things over to a machine.  The machine systematically calls everybody in creation, playing the recorded message and "spreading the word" about the politician and everything that the politician's opponent does wrong.  Everybody hates robo-calls, but in true politician fashion, the campaigner ignores what everybody wants and simply does whatever he or she thinks will get them elected.  

Usually, in election season (which is now every season...thanks, 24-hour "news" networks), these robo-calls are met with different reactions based on which political party the listener belongs to.  If they, for example, are a member of the Republican party, and the robo-call is from a member of the Democratic party (in the 1.7% likelihood that the listener is even aware of the party affiliation), the call is immediately the subject of rage and phone screaming, even though (in true political form), nobody is listening.  The same goes vise versa for opposite affiliations.  If the listener's political party matches that of the robo-call, the same level of rage is obtained, but directed at the caller's political opponent.  The end result is the same, really...the listener is enraged and yelling at the phone.  It's interesting to note that the subject of the call, or any relevant "facts" stated within are entirely irrelevant.  The voter has already made up their mind who they're going to vote for, why, and what they are going to believe in terms of information presented.

In the last election cycle, I was fortunate enough to only receive robo-calls to my office phone.  Perhaps my cell phone is unlisted, or on a no-call list or whatever.  I'm okay with that, and don't really want to bring attention to the fact.  Fortunately, for the sake of my office phone's health, the barrage of calls (3-6 calls every day) stopped immediately after the election.  What followed was a period of campaign-free bliss that was sure to be short-lived.  Well, that period of bliss ended on May 12, a mere 5 months and 3 weeks before the next election.  I didn't pay enough attention to learn who the call was for.  I should have, though.  My idea for this coming election is to tabulate the number of robo calls I get from each politician and cast my vote for whoever calls me the least in each race.  There are plenty of people who will use worse methods to determine their elected officials.