I can hardly wait until Tuesday. Not because I’m so eager to vote for Virg (which I’ll do), but because election day will silence the robots that have been hounding me in recent weeks.
Each night when I get home from work, my answering machine begs for my attention. Beep ... beep ... beep ... Five messages waiting. I push the button and, one by one, the mouthpieces for the candidates drag their opponents through the hog slime.
As you may recall, a bill was introduced in the Michigan Legislature a few years ago that would allow weary citizens to opt out of automated political calls in the same way they dodge telemarketers through the National Do Not Call Registry.
The bill’s sponsor, Grand Ledge’s Rep. Rick Jones, predicted it would be dead on arrival, and he was right.
“I’ve heard from both sides of the aisle,” Jones told me. “They like (robocalls) and want to continue using them. They think they’re effective.”
And cheap. For about $2,000, a candidate can deliver his or her pitch, via robocall, to 100,000 potential voters. And why would a politician act against his own best interests for the benefit of his constituents?
