Losing my cool!

 

My mailbox is full! It takes half my day to sort the chaff from the wheat and clean it out. My friends write me ten, twelve, fifteen times a day. I hear from Mark and Val, John and Beto, Charlie and Tim and lately Catherine in Nevada. Each one of them tells me that their race is the key to the future of our country—most of those claims comes from senatorial candidates who insist if they lose, the Senate will go red. I’m not sure how each one knows that, but I read and consider.

Nancy sends me countless texts a day, and I’m not adept at texts so I find this a problem. I also occasionally hear from Chuck and Barrack and today it was actors like Martin Sheen and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. I’m so flattered that these busy people have time to write me so often. I don’t know how they get anything else done. I certainly don’t, because I’m busy reading their emails.

Of course, occasionally I hear from Ron or Gym or Mehmet, even Don Jr., and I’m quick to find the unsubscribe button. They’re so clever that it’s sometimes hard to find. But those folks are not friends of mine. A great puzzlement: I haven’t heard from Herschel yet. I’m waiting breathlessly.

Sometimes the messages from my friends are contradictory. They are often a pessimistic bunch, and they send such dramatic messages as, “Packing it up. Going home,” or “It’s over. We’ve lost,” or “We’re out of money. Broke.” Of course we all know that’s not true, so I really wish they’d stop the dramatics. An “It’s over,” message may be almost immediately followed by, “We’re crying tears of joy.” Hard to keep up.

Most people understand that a) polls are at best good guesses, and b) two or three points is within the margin of error. Yet these emails crow over the difference of one point—above or behind. I figure they must like the drama of an uncertain life—or campaign.

I also hear from the Democratic Party or some branch, like the DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee). They all beg me to renew my party membership. Here’s the thing: I’ve renewed it four times, each time with a modest donation, but that doesn’t seem to register with them.

Of course, let’s be realistic: I get these messages because from time to time, as my means permit, I send modest checks to one specific campaign or another. There’s no plan behind how I choose—I just think when someone seems really to need help, my twenty-five dollars might be well spent. I’ve recently donated to John Fetterman in Pennsylvania on that basis, and the only monthly contribution I make is to Beto because I am really passionate about getting Greg Abbott out of office. But sometimes when I make these random donations, that Blue Action central headquarters pops up with a stern warning that says, “Forbidden!” Naturally I thought it was my fault, so I followed the fine print that says if you have trouble write us here.

Their solution was that I should erase the history on my computer, something I was not eager to do. Since then, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I have decided the problem is on their end.

Don’t get me wrong: I am a lifelong Democrat, for a lot of reasons, many of which have to do with compassion and honesty and integrity. On a thread tonight extolling Ken Paxton’s virtues—really?--someone advised me to vote red. I replied that a decade or so ago, I might have considered it in select cases, but today I would never vote for a Republican, except Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger, because I consider them all traitors held in thrall by the former guy, and each day it becomes more clear that he is a traitor. Besides, who would vote for a party that continues to push Herschel Walker for the Senate.

My point with this silliness is that I will vote Democratic, and I will do my darndest to convince anyone within earshot of me to do the same. And I know national campaigns are complex and present amazing challenges to control digitized information, but I sure wish the Democratic Party and all its branches could organize a little better. And I wish my friends would settle for maybe one email a day. It would leave them lots of time to walk the block, knock on doors, etc.

Y’all get out and vote Blue!