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EMIL
FRANZI |
Inside Track: The nanny state will now address - annoyanceJanuary 31, 2007 |
Those annoying political phone
calls used every election are now being addressed by a
gaggle of Pima County legislators. HB 2596 directs the
secretary of state to develop and maintain a statewide list
of people who do not want to be called by political
committees and provide that list to all political parties
for distribution to candidates and committees. There are no
penalties involved, but the sponsors believe votes would be
lost by candidates and committees who violated it. Prime
sponsors are Pima County Democrats Steve Farley, Tom
Prezelski and Lena Saradnik. Co-sponsors are Democrats David
Bradley and Phil Lopes and Republicans Jennifer Burns and
Pete Hershberger.
The bill would accomplish little. It ignores calls from independent committees and non-partisan advocates of ballot propositions. As a free-standing item, it causes little damage, and it’s probable that at least some of its supporters are pandering and posing for the media. Representative Farley has already made himself unavailable for comment, Representative Hershberger once again alines himself with Democrats and Representative Burns is bright enough to know better. The mindset it represents is what requires opposition. As a vote-gathering tool, computer generated Robo-Calls already suck. Competent political consultants quit them years ago. They are over-used and they lose more votes than they garner now. Unfortunately, too many marketing bozos apply the tools of commerce to politics. When selling a product you don’t mind if 95 percent of the public dislikes your message if you sell the other 5 percent. Those numbers hardly work in an election. Campaigns use telephones because it’s become difficult to communicate with voters. Volunteers knocking on doors has unfortunately faded because too many doors are now inaccessible, from high-end gated communities to lower-end trailer parks. Effective political campaigns need to communicate beyond high priced electronic advertising and filtered — or often non-existent — media coverage. A return to the old-fashioned phone bank with real people promoting candidates and issues would not only be more effective, but much better received. Election-time letters and columns tell us that many folks annoyed by political phone calls are also annoyed by political direct mail, petition passers and candidate signs. So what? I can find no constitutional right concerning the avoidance of annoyance. It’s elimination is hardly a proper function of government at any level. It is a minor price to pay for living in a society that has free elections. Much of the world doesn’t get annoyed by these items because much of the world doesn’t get to vote. But if the legislature (which is regularly chastised by the liberal media in the state for ignoring big stuff like education, crime and healthcare and wasting too much time on “trivia”) really wants to start passing laws involving simple annoyances, I suggest they pick on some of mine: • People who have more than the maximum number of items at the express check-out stand, and then wait until their entire order is rung before searching for their checkbook. • Moving outdoors, those who leave their shopping cart either blocking a parking spot or where it can roll into a car. • Expanding to all parking lots, those who take two spots so THEIR car will not be scratched. • Drivers who impede traffic and waste finite resources — particularly my time — by poking along 10 miles BELOW the speed limit on no-pass, two lane roads. • Really obese people who insist on wearing Spandex or shorts in public. • Window return envelopes. Why can’t banks and others just print their addresses? • People who stop to yak and block a doorway, store aisle or parking lot lane and are oblivious to everyone around them. • Parents who drop their kids across the street from the school, slowing traffic twice when they then make a U-turn. • Inanimate objects that behave badly, such as my computer and its keyboard. Steve, Tom, Lena, David, Phil, Pete, Jennifer — get with it! Or else you’ll annoy me. |
BUT WATCH WHAT YOU SAY! |
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