Member-only story
It is Time to Talk to Friends and Family About the Mid-Terms
We have tuned out everything else
My phone rings and I don’t answer it. Our landline rings and the sound surprises me. But I don’t answer it. My pocket buzzes with a text message notification every half-hour. My email is full of urgent requests. My actual mailbox is full every day of glossy attacks by one side or the other. I go to get a burger and every ad on tv is political. I turn on youtube… you get the picture. I am contacted so many times every day by politicians asking for my money, my time, or my vote that I automatically tune it all out. I have work to do. I am unreachable.
How about you? Are you unreachable, too?
I already know how I will vote. And I make a monthly donation to the local chapter of my political party. I work the booth at the county fair. I feel like I am unreachable because I already care about the big issues, and I already have a plan in place to vote.
I feel the urgency from both major parties. I think part of that urgency is fear that the people they are trying to reach are unreachable because they don’t know or don’t care how important the mid-terms are. The more they don’t reach people, the more urgently they try, with more and more attack ads, which turns more people off and makes them more unreachable.
