Will The Election Be Over November 2? 

Will it be over Nov. 2?

Most of us grew up in a world where Election Day signaled an end to a cycle of campaigning. That was the end that all the campaigning was geared for.  Much like Christmas Day signals the end of the shopping and preparation that leads to it.

It looks like Election Day will no longer signal the end of the campaign. When once America and its various political subdivisions would pause immediately after an election to prepare to govern or prepare to act the role of loyal opposition.

With Fox News leading the way as disseminator of Republican talking points, the periods after the election have become a time for prepping and testing strategy for the next election. For the past two years the testing was done on issues such as the stimulus and health care. Doing this also helped set the agenda for this election and ‘soften up’ democratic candidates for the actual election campaign.

And this past decade has only been a warm up. With the decision in Citizen’s United vs. FEC, it’s like Daddy hit the lottery and Christmas will never end. Now there will be plenty of money to keep those issue ads on the air all the time. And of course radio and TV will love a new infusion of money. We will be seeing political ads like never before. Also expect Republican candidates – especially tea bagger candidates – to emerge earlier and be hitting the airwaves harder.

I think this is a really sad turn of events. The country needs time to breathe and try on its new direction after an election. Those who have been elected to govern need time to govern without feeling like they must immediately be back on the campaign trail.

And all this brings me to another point. Those on the right seem to have an endless supply of money. Why do they have an endless supply of money? Well in the end it is because common Americans buy the products that are sold by the companies they own. Now I know that a boycott is impossible to organize and takes a long time to have any effect.

But I also know that buying products where the profit will be used to advance causes that hurt the middle class is surely counter-productive.   This summer as I was entering the Democratic HQ in Muscatine a local businessman came from inside his business to scream at me for parking in front of his store. Of course I immediately vowed never to set foot in his store again.

As I thought about it later on I wondered just how many purchases I made in a day or week or month where part of the profit is being used to strengthen the corporate stranglehold on the government. We seldom go to Walmart or Hy Vee. But in a small town it is near impossible to stay out of Casey’s.

Is there a good way for liberals to reward those businesses that support progressive causes without having a backlash that would ultimately hurt said business? Any ideas out there folks? If you do contact me at dlbcab2@gmail.com

~Dave Bradley is a self-described
retired observer of American politics “trying to figure out how we got
so screwed up.”  An
Iowa City native currently living in West Liberty, Dave and his wife
Carol have two grown children who “sadly had to leave the state to find
decent paying jobs.”