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Jean Barker
The American presidential race has become exhausting, like listening to the same toxic couple in the apartment next door have the same nasty fight every night.
To the casual listener, it’s beginning to seem like a horrible fight between the people who believe racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying, and full on stupidity is something is so wrong that even voting for someone you dislike is noble, and people who believe that equality is oppression and that only Republicans should have private email servers.
It’s exhausting, like listening to the same couple having the same fight in the apartment next door to you every night for a year. You may hate one of them more, but you hate them both a lot.
Election Fatigue
Election Fatigue is common in the US. The electioneering process never really ends. It’s like holiday decorations – just as the last lot of plastic junk leaves the stores, the next lot arrives. But experts say it’s worse than usual this year, with the stress so noticeable that therapy appointment bookings are on the rise across the USA.
Election Fatigue is so bad, in fact, that people are actually too tired to fight about it on social media, according to trusted source, the Pew Research Center. They’re not wrong. I have friends I no longer even bother to respond to, and friends who ban any discussion of Trump on their Facebook pages, and friends I’m avoiding until it’s all over.
People are doing anything to distract themselves from the tedious horror of the situation.
People report the following desperate actions: Visiting the Department of Motor Vehicles to renew their vehicle license early. Filing those divorce papers they always meant to file. Some people are even unpacking that Schrödinger’s Cat box of stuff that they have had since they moved and that “may have anything in it, like maybe stacks of $100 bills, who knows, but at least there’s hope as long as while it remains sealed”, which is probably full of charger cables for obsolete technology.
#Makefacebookcatsagain
One of the more amusing desperate efforts to combat Clinton/Trump’s invasion of our world, is the #Makefacebookcatsagain tag. Of course, even this has been perverted, with people putting Trump wigs on their cats, photographing them, and uploading that instead. Enter #trumpyourcat.
And just as we thought the fight was over, thanks to “Pussygate” - and it began to seem certain that Hilary would definitely win - some big Insurance companies pulled out of Obamacare, pushing the prices up, and giving Trump something new campaign on.
I’m sick and tired of it all, and I can’t even vote.
- Jean earned an MFA in Directing and Screenwriting and works in the LA film industry. She tweets as @jeanbarker and blogs pictures of signs and more, here. She will be back.
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