Since I have worked in politics, and because I have an insatiable thirst for politics, for many years my family and friends have sought my “sage wisdom” during every major election. Perhaps what I am being asked to do is to allay their fears and validate their predictions and hopes.
And over the years, I’ve given the same answer to each of their question after question. Opinion poll? Don’t pay attention to them. What about media? They create horse races for ratings and readers. Critic? Please ignore. In fact, ignore all the noise. And I want to emphasize that the week before the election means nothing. So I think they all start thinking, “What? John sounds very confident, so he must be right.
I have something to confess. My long-standing response is an ongoing ruse. Not only do I not ignore surveys, I am obsessed with them. I follow cable news coverage like a mouse chasing cheese. It read like a hot dog eating contest. And with recent elections no longer offering next-day relief, the months, weeks, and years leading up to the first Tuesday in November will all be relevant.
It’s like the saying, “Doctor, cure yourself,” but I have no idea what kind of treatment will cure my anxiety. When you’re passionate about politics, how do you try to solve political problems when it’s in your blood? When it starts to consume your mental state? Waiting for December to come and it will all be over. But when it finally ends, I’m as lost as a die-hard baseball fan after the last pitch of a World Series.
How will I spend my time in the future? What do I think? What do I read or watch on TV? What fills me with fear?
We don’t have to follow the polls, right? Wrong! Every morning, before dawn, I turn on my phone in the dark and scroll through news alerts about the latest polls. For example, my heart skips a beat when I see Vice President Harris lose a one-point lead in Pennsylvania overnight. It’s going to be a morning without coffee. I’m already full of frustration. Don’t even get me started on Nate Cohn.
Next stop is TV. Sometimes you forget to go to the bathroom, but at 60, that’s a big mistake. I switch between morning joe And CNN. why? That’s so you can catch the opinions of every critic at the table and broadcast from home. When Joe Scarborough beats up Donald Trump, like I do during a Pittsburgh Steelers game, I yell, “Good luck!” Or “F you” when CNN’s Scott Jennings makes a mild compliment about Trump.
Critics are not there to inform me, but as a way to affirm my hopes and vent my anger.
During a commercial break — the advantage of these two networks is that they appear to be on break at the same time — I scroll new york times, politiko, Axiosand anything else you see in your newsfeed related to the election. Usually, after reading the first paragraph of a story, you know if you want to read more. Otherwise, I frantically flip over and over, and the next, and the next, until I find something that keeps my heart beating so hard.
There are downvote races included in the reviews and articles, but to limit my enthusiasm and avoid further madness, I won’t get into the weeds about them in this column. Use your own imagination as to what that would be like for me.
All the while, I’m pumping out column ideas to my gentle, sane editor, the wonderful Alex Cooper. Because everything you hear and read is worth writing about. Everything matters in this election. Dear Alex, you know the depths of my madness and how to tame it. He must be imagining me in real life. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
When he says no, I get angry and look for other topics that might justify a yes. why? Because you can’t ignore noise. I have to be part of the noise too. must something It helps Harris and hurts Trump. It’s as if he thinks what he writes will change people’s minds to support Harris. “Get over yourself,” I tell myself. “No one cares what you think.” But that doesn’t stop him from thinking that what he writes will have a huge impact on the election.
There’s another thing about writing tons of columns about elections. They are cathartic. Like this. Writing about Harris, Trump, or a cause I strongly support can make my heart beat faster. Blood pressure decreases. Your words will soothe my frayed nerves. Prosing gives you a brief respite from hovering over your phone or computer and loading everything you can read about the election. When I write, I’m in another world. I was speechless.
And when it’s finished. Look up at MSNBC and the cycle of confusion begins again.
I know better. Pollsters I know told me, like anything else, it’s all about the money. It’s not that the polls themselves are manipulated, but if the polls reveal a clear front-runner or a big loser, no one will pay attention to them, and worse, in this case, candidates and clients We won’t keep paying for more polls. to get the answers they want.
It also involves funding for news channels, newspapers, news sites and news feeds. If the media reports that it’s a runaway race, people will ignore it. I know there are millions of people like me who consume and need media at all times of the day. Because everything has a meaning.
If I woke up tomorrow and Joe Scarborough said, “Harris is so far ahead. Trump can’t get her,” I’d go back to bed. It’s all about eyeballs and clicks, and the close races ensure addicts like me come back again and again. And as long as I keep coming back, advertisers will continue to buy ads, so people like Scarborough and Jennings will continue to get paid. A vicious cycle of attachment.
Perhaps I should be more honest when asked to give my own professional opinion. You should tell the Inquisitor that the poll is very important and deserves attention morning joe, inside politicsand deadline white house Every day, actually, no, you should leave your TV on 24/7. According to my experts? I don’t know any more than you, so please don’t read what I write.
The only thing I know to be absolutely true is that everything these past 20 days has meant something. So please don’t disturb me until December. Hopefully everything will be over by then, but I’ll probably be asking for some distracting conversation.
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