You can’t escape it. It’s everywhere. The election. It’s even at the beach. We’ve all seen the planes fly over the beach with the banners advertising a local bar, restaurant, or a product we don’t really need. While sitting on a Jersey shore beach yesterday after two weeks of political conventions, you think you could enjoy the sunshine, refreshing breeze and perfect water temperature. Then my wife and I heard the sound of that buzzing single engine plane. It didn’t say “Eat at Joe’s” or “4 to 6 Happy Hour at the Clam Shack”. It said “Ukrainians for Trump”. We all know the trouble he had with Ukraine. He got impeached over it. So, we were unsure if this was a pro-Trump banner, or an anti-Trump banner. Were the people who had spent money on this Ukrainians who loved Trump and didn’t think he did anything wrong by pressuring their government to dig up political dirt on Joe Biden? Or was it mocking Trump for his betrayal of the law?
I thought I saw more people than usual looking up and noticing the banner. In an unconscious effort to tune politics out, I dozed off while reading, not an uncommon occurrence. While pleasantly oblivious, my wife told me upon awakening, a banner plane flew over saying “Putin and Trump 2020”. Were the Russians trying to get their message out the old fashion way just in case all that digital hacking doesn’t get their buddy back in for four more years? Or was someone paying to tell everyone on the beach what a vote for Trump really meant? I wanted to run into the water and dive under the waves and make it all go away.
Not so fast. Within a few minutes a plane was flying by with a banner that said, “Biden and Decency 2020”. I don’t know if all three banners were flown by the same plane. Which means they would have had to have a team of people on the ground to quickly change the banners as the plane stopped for a few seconds like a pit crew at Daytona. Or was it three different planes trying to out race each other over the beach? This must be great for the banner plane business because they have to make their money before Labor Day.
In most presidential election years, experts say people really don’t start paying attention to the campaigns until after Labor Day because people vacation during the summer and have plenty of enjoyable distractions. But this hasn’t been anything close to a typical presidential election year. A deadly virus still rages out of control. Video of police shooting unarmed black men is on a constant loop on television and social media. The streets are filled with protestors most peaceful some not, leading to more violence. Division and fear is so pervasive, some have made wearing a mask to protect each other from a virus that’s sickened and killed millions around the world, a political statement. The very core of our democracy is being threatened by concerns over how our ballots will be cast and counted.
We all know where the candidates stand on the issues. They haven’t just told us, they’ve demonstrated who they are by their actions. I don’t think interrupting a day at the beach will change any minds. But, it is a free country.
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