Bye bye yard signs, it’s clean up time

Finally, the election is over. I know the candidates are relived and that goes for about everybody.

Don Estep is publisher of the News Journal.

It is time to take down all the yard signs, do away with those gosh awful television ads and count the votes.

I don’t mind the yard signs, but every election we are bombarded with ads on TV that will drive you up the wall. It is bad enough to have the same ad aired over and over, but many don’t even tell the truth.

When I started as a radio broadcaster back in 1961 we were told that Newton Minnow, who was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, enforced “truth in advertising” and for the most part you could believe most of what you saw and heard.  Years later that law was done away with and now anything goes.

I heard a report that about 70 percent of the voters had already made up their minds by early September on who they were voting for. If that is the case, then millions of dollars were spent nationwide to convince 30 percent of the other voters.

It seems like such a waste, but what do I know? The “experts” claim that TV ads work. Ask yourself, do you really believe what you see and hear on the TV ads and do they convince you to vote a certain way?

If you think the ads were bad in this election, just wait until 2024 when the presidential election will be held. It will be solid commercials by political parties.

The amount of money spent on elections is one of our major problems. If you think America is divided now, wait until then. The ads will drive us further apart.

Politics has broken up families, friends and the extremists have turned to violence.

It is one thing to say, “I hate Tennessee” when they have beaten you to a pulp, but you get over that in a few days. But for those who will not accept defeat, watch out. America, we have a problem!

Running for office is tough. Locally our candidates worked hard and to those who won, “congratulations.” To all who ran for office, “thank you.” All of you help make our government better.