Ban all political ads, or just the negative ones?

There are 91 days remaining until Election Day. I'm already fed up with negative ads on television and in social media (although some of the online ads are funny). Our phone never stops ringing with calls from an "Unnamed Person." Politicians exempted themselves and their campaigns from spam calling. This morning's paper is full of stories pointing out that, because of the Republicans' lead in incompetent governing,  the Democrats are acting like the old rent-a-car commercial, "When you're only number 2, you try harder." Walz and Frey pointing fingers at each other to account for a lack of rapid response by the National Guard during the recent Minneapolis uprisings.

Meanwhile, we still don't have anything that could begin to pass for a national plan to contain COVID-19, the idiot in the White House, and a number of other Republicans, are insisting that schools be open and full of students, with exceptions for kids like Barron Trump. On the local scene, we are faced with:

Lawsuit aims to block mask mandate at Minnesota polling places

The lawsuit, backed by GOP legislators, is the 11th legal challenge to Gov. Tim Walz's COVID-19 restrictions. 

In which Secretary of State Steve Simon notes "voters won’t be required to wear masks. Election workers will ask people to wear masks and offer them for free. Curbside voting could be an alternative if someone refuses. Counties and cities can determine whether to cite people who violate the mask rule, Simon said. “No one should stand in their way of voting. It’s a constitutional right,” he said. “You can’t tie a constitutional right to the wearing of a mask.”

Would it not make more sense to mandate that all voting be done by mail?

Please note that I'm not fussing about ideological differences here. I'm wondering where in hell anything that looks like common sense has gone during the current pandemic, "occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population". Meanwhile, Congress continues to fail to enact necessary and desperately needed COVID-19 relief legislation for those unemployed but does manage to shovel billions more dollars in agricultural aid.

How are voters supposed to take their election responsibilities seriously when both major political parties keep offering candidates that are way too reminiscent of the innumerable clowns that kept coming out of the little car at the circus. Never mind a debate about big versus small government. How about a political party that focuses on making government function well?

I've reached a point at which I'm likely to decide who I'm voting for by assessing which party has irritated me most (DNC doesn't support Medicare for All vs. killing ACA) weighted by the number of irresponsibly stupid statements by that party's candidates. And for all of this we're obligated to pay taxes, unless we're among the richest 1%. If there is such a thing as reincarnation, I wish Mother Jones would reappear, and soon.

Aunt Chloe's Politics

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper - 1825-1911

Of course, I don’t know very much
    About these politics,
But I think that some who run ’em
    Do mighty ugly tricks.
I’ve seen ’em honey-fugle round,
    And talk so awful sweet,
That you’d think them full of kindness,
    As an egg is full of meat.
Now I don’t believe in looking
    Honest people in the face,
And saying when you’re doing wrong,
    That “I haven’t sold my race.”
When we want to school our children,
    If the money isn’t there, 
Whether black or white have took it,
    The loss we all must share.
And this buying up each other
    Is something worse than mean,
Though I thinks a heap of voting,
    I go for voting clean. 

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.