Ping or Pong?

The tension is mounting and my e-mails number some 75 per day with calls for help. One says “Ping— we’re doing great! Keep the momentum going!” and the next “Pong—Disaster! Help us!”

Seriously, here is a sampling from the last few days of the opening sentences:

·      Only five days to pull this off!

·      Another BIG swing in the polls!

·      Huge problem!

·      Great news!

·      Urgent! We’re running out of time!

·      The blue wave is SURGING to the finish.

·      Not the news I wanted.

·      Tied in Georgia!

·      We’re PANICKING, Doug!

·      BIG NEWS! We’ve reached 8 million voters with a new texting program.

I must say I vastly prefer the Ping Method, asking me to join the wave of hope, over the Pong Method, demanding I help or else disaster will strike.

I know it does no one any good to stand on ideals in this dirty world of politics, but I can’t help think about two things:

• What does it say about our democracy that the number one strategy for winning is “More money!!!!!!!!” Besides deporting the Koch Brothers, what would it take to create limits to campaign spending that both sides could match and level the playing field? I notice no one is writing e-mails saying things like, “Get together with your neighbors and talk about issues! Discuss issues with your distant cousins and siblings! Educate yourself about issues!” The bar is so low for what it means to participate in democracy—give money and vote.

• The ping-pong of the polls drives me crazy. What more would any person with half a brain cell need to know about the bad intentions and low character of the Toddler-in-Chief and the shameless support the Republicanos continue to give? Does the average citizen vote according to the flavor-du-jour being served up on Fox News that convinces them the day before an election who to vote for?

Aargh!!!! And don’t get me started on having only one day to vote that’s not a holiday, the people getting away with voter suppression, gerrymandering and the Electoral College and the hundred other details that should be making the Founding Fathers rumble in their graves.

Well, naturally I hope the blue wave indeed SURGES to the finish and washes away the last remnants of the mean-spirited, selfish, cynical, shameless and heartless good-ole-boys club, while all too aware that that naysayer panicking e-mails may turn out to have had their finger on the dying pulse of the nation. Will it be Ping or will it be Pong? We shall see. We shall see.