Have you caught it? You haven't? I find that hard to believe since we've been exposed to so much of it recently.
The "it" to which I refer is "political versus." Not virus, it's "versus," a malady that can become even more damaging to the psyche than a virus; i.e., it can cause a person's blood pressure to rise to such an unpredictable high that sometimes an explosion can result.
With the upcoming mid-term election entering its final weeks of confusion and conflict, if you haven't already succumbed to the "versus," be warned. It's out there waiting to grab you. The blarney and baloney we've been experiencing the past several weeks -- make that months -- is escalating to new heights.
The versus can become so toxic it will pit neighbor against neighbor, family members against family members. Hopefully, wife against husband, or vice-versa, can be under control and marriages salvaged.
Political versus begins when two people, or parties, go head to head with their outlandish claims and charges. What begins as "he" versus "him" soon escalates to "them" versus "us." If the candidates don't personally fan the flames, their supporters, PACs or party organizations do their part in disturbing the calm. The resulting storm is inevitable.
During these final weeks, it can be so easy to become caught up in the fray as we are bombarded with more and more of the goulash clamoring for our attention. Though innocently or naively at first, the versus can take hold before we realize it and we are like the rabbit which hit the tar baby. We are stuck!
Even though this is an off-year election, the tar babies are especially sticky. Just consider all the talk about secrecy and mismanagement in government, war, taxes, the ballooning deficit, gridlock and, of course, Obamacare with all of its controversies and ramifications. The versus bugs, usually shaped like donkeys or elephants, are out in full force on the tube. Quite a change from when candidates used to spar it out in personal appearances or as they and their supporters spread the campaign rhetoric through ads which featured a couple of pictures along with a summary of the candidate's glowing qualifications and accomplishments. Usually they concluded with words to the effect that "our guy can do a better job" so please vote for him ... blah ... blah ... blah. They also included the sponsor's name which was not some three or four lines of unreadable gibberish of an unknown someone or organization from who knows where. How quiet those ads were.
Of course, the versus was just as great then as it is now, if not greater. It was just more bearably quiet. Now the continual ads on the tube, no matter how hard they try to get personal, fail miserably. That in spite of all the technicolor pictures and flashy graphics coupled with music and sound effects. Too often they are typically negative and questionably honest through manipulation of bits of supposed information.
I guess this 'cuff' dates me, a fact of which I'm proud. The sad part is the millions of dollars spent on versus propaganda, which could be spent helping solve some of the problems of society, never see the light of day. Most people traditionally make up their minds based on lots of factors that have gripped their attention over a period of time and all the blaring propaganda usually has little effect. Changing a solidified mind is one of those almost impossibilities.
One other difference in today's election process is early voting. In those earlier, slower days, people who needed to could vote absentee (they still can today) before the final mad rush of versus reached its peak a couple of days before the election. Today's early voters, who sometimes cast their ballots five or 10 days in advance, might as well ignore the last minute versus madness which sometimes could have changed their early vote.
Ironically, early voting has not altered the voting habits of Americans. The turnout of qualified voters barely reaches the 50-percent mark. Shame! Shame!
But back to today's versus bug. If it hasn't already caught you in its sticky grasp, seek it out and roll with its punches. Then go to the polls on election day, vote for the person or other ballot measures that best represent you personally, not a party, not an unknown advertiser, not a prejudiced, half-factual versus opinion. Then you can join other voters, hold your head high and proclaim proudly: "I beat the versus; I voted." Proud Americans, all of you!
Dodie Evans is editor emeritus of the Gravette News Herald. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 09/24/2014