Not Our Vote

Last night I had settled in to watch some TV when the show was interrupted with news that Mitt Romney had won the New Hampshire primary. "Oh. Well, good for him," my brain thought. "But I'm not in New Hampshire, so we can go back to the show now, right?" Unfortunately, the answer was no because first we had to stick with around the Romney camp to see his speech, then shoot over to hear the second and third place finishers give their speeches about how finishing second and third was somehow a victory. After it became clear that we wouldn't be going back to my regularly scheduled program I began flipping around for something not-politics related to watch. Even though it was fairly easy to do I was annoyed at having to do it at all. As I did my scanning, I was struck by one thought over and over again: "I don't want to go through this for another ten months."

I make no secret of the fact that politics isn't my thing. First off, I think every politician, regardless of their political party, is basically just going to say whatever they think you want to hear at that moment. I knew kids in high school who did this and I hated them. And as much as I love a lively discussion, talking politics is the worst. It seems every bad conversation I can remember happening involves one of three topics: politics, religion and the Lakers. By this point if anyone begins to talk glowingly about any of those three subjects my first impulse is to get up and get the hell out of dodge, because the conversation is just going to end up with me having a lesser opinion of that person. But last night was worse because the issues forced themselves into my home against my will. (At least the TV spirits in "Poltergeist" were nice enough to take that little girl on a trip when they came out of the TV.) If I wanted to watch election coverage I would turn over to any of the 15 cable news channels at my fingertips. The fact that I chose instead to watch a Navy-theme crime series should speak volumes about how invested I feel about what is happening in an election in another state.

Look, I get that this is a big deal to some people, specifically the people of New Hampshire. They like being one of the first states to cast their political vote and they take the honor very seriously. I'm also aware that I live very close to New Hampshire (big fan of their hiking options as well as their money). However, "near" does not equal "the same place". I fail to see why my entertainment needs to be interrupted because some people in my area made a decision that I didn't get a say in. Not everything that happens in New England needs to be treated as though we are all one big happy family. You never see other states so up in each other's business. We might all be under one regional nickname, but that doesn't mean I care what Vermont is up to tonight. This is the exact same logic that leads me to me getting so many Giants games on TV during football season and we all know how much I hate that. They say all politics are local, but apparently the news affiliates have a very broad definition of what constitutes local.

I think what is really bothering me the most is the realization that we're just getting started with election season. We haven't even gotten through the Republican primaries yet. Hell, we're only two states in and I'm already sick and tired of the process. I can't stand the thought of 10 more months of pandering, pre-recorded phone calls from anonymous numbers and depressing negative ads about how each side is making everything worse (which, miraculously, manages to be true). I don't have a choice about the local elections getting a lot of coverage, but I feel like the least the local news programs can do is wait until the national elections come through the state to break out the wall-to-wall coverage. It'll be here soon enough. Unfortunately this election season is going to be a marathon not a sprint, so I really don't see the need to start running in other people's races as well.