“Good grief, can’t we just get it over with?” That was one person’s reaction during a Liberty Nation News focus group this week regarding the upcoming election. On the one hand, this was somewhat surprising, coming from a dyed-in-the-wool political junkie who eats and sleeps politics. On the other, it’s understandable that she is on her last nerve, having survived two hurricanes in two weeks – the last of which practically did her in. With 22 days to go until election day, it seems fatigue has set in early this cycle, and Americans are ready to rumble.
Part of the election exhaustion could emanate from the enormity of catastrophic news that has been prevalent this year. The Middle East is smoldering in a tit-for-tat series of military maneuvers; Mother Nature is harassing the eastern seaboard as Hurricanes Helene and Milton make landfall, and not one but two attempts were made on the life of former President Donald Trump. So, every other day, when someone steps up to a microphone shouting: “This is the most important election of your lifetime,” a burned-out electorate seems ready to throw up its hands and say: “Enough already!”
Another reason for election exhaustion might be having to sift through endless television ads. Some of them may even make you pine for the odd pharmaceutical advertisement. Well, maybe that’s going a bit far. Or perhaps it’s the pollsters calling and texting, making you wonder, “How the heck did they get my cell phone number?” Then you realize that privacy is the most precious of 21st-century commodities – one that you surrender when purchasing a mobile phone. So you practice your “Sorry, wrong number” speech for the next call that interrupts the game you’re watching. Another cause of election exhaustion could be the constant negativity that keeps bombarding you on every front. If you find yourself wondering, “Why can’t they find something nice to say?” you realize this is most likely your problem.
Are We There Yet?
In the 2005 classic flick Are We There Yet?, rapper Ice Cube struggles to control two uncivilized children of a woman he loves. The title teases the storyline: the kids continually nag him about when they will reach their destination. Similarly, much of the American electorate has made up its mind regarding who they will vote for on November 5 – even the independents. (In most polling crosstabs, there is a section that reveals which way independents lean – right or left.) At this point, the number of those who say they are undecided among likely voters is relatively small.
The voting population is also concerned about whether the election will be clean and decisive. The ambiguity is causing anxiety, which, in turn, fuels extreme election exhaustion. As author E.C. Creekmore previously reported for Liberty Nation News, Americans were showing signs of election stress disorder as early as the spring of this year:
“[V]oters are already drained from the campaigns. Six in ten US adults (62%) report election fatigue, according to Pew Research. This is slightly higher than the study showed in the last two elections, with 59% of voters depleted by June and July of 2016 and 61% of voters exhausted by October 2020.”
As well, Creekmore astutely noted: “The survey also shows that Democrats and Republicans are almost evenly divided when it comes to election fatigue, with 66% of Dems and 58% of Republicans feeling the effects.” It’s safe to say that electoral exhaustion is a bipartisan malady. However, the bottom line of the study exposes the extent of the weariness: 76% admit they are “worried about the country’s future.”
Election PTSD
In a piece for Psychology Today, author Alex Pattakos, PhD, asserts: “Like gladiators in ancient Rome whose fights in the Colosseum were literally a matter of life or death, political campaigns, figuratively speaking, can assume a similarly combative tone and character.” This can lead to general anxiety, depression, trouble sleeping, and even nightmares.
WebMD discussed the case of one man who was “potentially addicted to doomscrolling on X.com (then known as Twitter).” He entered therapy because he “found himself feeling immensely jealous of people who weren’t burdened by the same political stress.”
Time to Get a Grip?
A good deal of this anxiety comes from a lack of control. After all, there is the rubric of “one man, one vote,” so there is no real way for a single person to alter the outcome of an election. Perhaps it’s time to step back a bit and lean on the words of other great men who fought terrible wars but managed to come out the other side victorious. It was Winston Churchill who – in a way only he could – opined: “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” However, the genius of America’s founders is that they did not leave us a democracy but a republic. Now, the challenge that lies ahead is to prove, as Benjamin Franklin once said, that we “can keep it” without going crazy.
