A Sea of Wasted Campaign Dollars

On my way to the library today, I couldnt help but notice the possibly hundreds of campaign signs for local politicians scattered around the grassy mall in front of the entrance. I was pretty curious who decided it was a good idea to spend about 10 dollars worth of material used to make that sign only to place it in the shadow of another sign.

Politics today is far too concerned with conformity to ever really inspire the electorate. The first leader to really break away and say screw it, "I'm not putting a sign in front of the library!" or on a grander scale, "I'm not going to interview with the mainstream media." will be a man or woman soon forgotten. That type of person will be quickly feasted upon by the conformists waiting for any petty oppurtunity to make themselves seem the most "normal" of the batch. This is a poor strategy as usually, 5 or 6 candidates will be winnowed out of any major election before a winner is declared. At least by skirting the usual routine, a politician will seperate himself from the dead weights.

This leads me back to my initial thought. Walking into that library, the only signs I noticed were the ones featuring names I had seen regularly in the news before. We had people running for everything under the sun and they all seemed to feel signs would be the best way to reach the people. While I happen to think a personal touch will always defeat the fleeting prevalence of a website or a chain letter (no, i dont find those cats playing basketball cute, stop sending me the pics grandma!), I also believe if a politician had simply stood outside shaking hands for just 15 minutes, he would have increased his votes by a fairly substantial amount. Even if said politician didnt have the time to do it himself, could he not send out some cute girl or better yet, ask her to do trivia night at a popular bar, all the while dousing said candidate in praise to the men and to a lesser extent, lesbians, in attendance? Just an idea....

Or screw it, how about a sign that says, "This is the best I could DO?"