As I think about this title “Election Fatigue,” I believe it could just as easily be titled “Election Fear” or “Election Fury.” The Facebook reading chat rooms to which I belong are brimming with people begging for book recommendations that will distract them from the election news. They want light reads filled with humor and romance. Nothing serious. People are giving up on news, especially television news. They’ve had enough. My husband and I gave up on TV news over a year ago. This election has done what no American election previously had done, I believe. It has sparked such anger and hate and division that friendships have broken up and relatives are refusing to speak to one another.
It seems we are now, because of the election, a people on edge, emotionally wrought. Will this end after the election? Hard to imagine. When children begin playing sports, they are always told how important it is to be “a good sport.” Shake hands with the opposing team after the game, even if you lost. No cursing or name-calling at the opponent during the game or match. What ever happened to that mantra? Everything is topsy-turvy.
How can we deal with this? Some people deal with it by working for their candidate of choice, feeling that they are doing what they can to help the causes they believe in. Others are too upset or fatalistic to get involved in that manner, or have done some work for a campaign and have now given up.
When driving, we are bombarded with signs along the roads and highways promoting candidates and propositions. Not only do I find that distracting, I find it insulting as well. Does anyone actually believe seeing signs will convince people to vote a certain way? Often, a candidate is pictured with his or her family. Does a picture of smiling spouses and cute children telegraph warmth and the feeling that this person is just like you? Ha. Insulting. Perhaps the aim is a form of subconscious advertising, such as when, for example, a product, let’s say Coke, is mentioned or shown several times in a movie and a percentage of people exit the movie theater and suddenly feel they must have a Coke. Manipulative, for sure.
The Yankee-Dodgers games recently provided some much-needed relief from thoughts of the election. That is now over. Sports has always been a useful distraction, whether participating or watching. Yelling and screaming at the TV uses energy, anger, and enthusiasm, which are thus diverted to something other than the election. That diversion is short-lived and sports fans must find something else afterwards to substitute for it. Otherwise, the election might take over their brains, they fear, and they might not know how to handle that.
For many, the anger and fear they have been experiencing may have morphed into pure resignation. I find people are more disgusted and dispirited now. They just want it to be over. Of course, they realize that it may not actually be over so quickly, and the stress and fear and anger may well continue. This realization in itself increases our stress and raises blood pressure. We can’t even relax and look forward to the morning after.
Whatever we usually do to counter stress are the things we should turn to now. Sports, crafts, games, exercise, reading, films, creative pursuits. Sure, they provide only temporary relief but we all need whatever relief we can get. Unfortunately, the constant texts and emails and phone calls from the campaigns asking for money bring us right back to the election, preventing us from ignoring it. We can ignore phone calls from unknown sources but our phones constantly blink with texts and emails and those cannot really be ignored.
These texts and emails try to induce guilt in us for not sending money right now, money that can make all the difference! I hear people arguing with their phones, muttering “I sent a contribution last week. Isn’t that enough?” And when well-known politicians and actors seem to be contacting us, offering to meet us for coffee, just how ridiculous is that? Are we so gullible that we perceive an email from George Clooney to be really personal?
No one I know seems to feel like having friends over to watch results on TV this coming Election Night, as many of us have done in the past. We are all too jittery for that. Some of us plan to drink a lot that night; I may just get into bed and pull the covers over my head.
One way or another, Election Day will arrive and there will be some kind of result. I would like to exhort everyone to stay calm, no matter what. Perhaps those broken friendships and family connections can be revived sometime down the road. I wish all of you peace and health and I beg you to find methods of dealing with those awful feelings of frustration, anger, and fear.
I have tried to remain neutral and noncommittal for the sake of this post, so I will end with this famous line : May the best woman win!!!!
Well said