The first world war lasted from 1914 to 1918. Along the  Western front there were some six thousand  miles of trenches extending from the sea to the mountains. The trenches were subject to cannon bombardment and the fighting involved crossing the area between both sides trenches, known as "no man's land" to the enemy trenches where hand to hand killing took place. The strain of this kind of war and the life in trenches took a mental toll. In WW I it was called "shell shock" and today combat stress is more commonly called "post traumatic syndrome." Well, I have political shell shock from all the political campaigning and I want rant about it.

Do you realize that the majority of Republican presidential candidates started campaigning in the Summer of 2011? The American people have been subjected to nonsense of nineteen meaningless presidential debates.Throughout this period, until the selection of the Republican candidate, we have subjected to countless television and media advertisements. Robot calls on the telephone and radio assaults were common place by politicians throughout this time. Once Mr. Romney was selected, president Obama began to campaign and quickly the contest became one of political attacks, so called "negative campaigning" where like children in the school yard both candidates call each other  names and accuse each other.

In addition to all of this the hunt for money started in the Summer of last year and has escalated progressively. I don't know about you, but I get calls from people running for office in other states who want me to contribute to their campaign. This is, of course, in addition to all the mail  and calls I get asking for  money from people running for office in cities, counties, state legislature, state office and all the federal offices. Not even Bill Gates could keep up financially if you were to respond to all the demands for money.In addition, we have requests to support financially proposed laws which will be voted upon including the hot button marriage law.

You can call it "campaign fatigue" or shell shock, but all I know is that I have had it with politicians and  political campaigning. I am really exhausted from all  the politics and politicians. I don't know how you feel, but I need a vacation from it all and I wish the elections were over tomorrow.

As to the source of the hundreds of millions of political dollars needed, we can thank Supreme Court justices like Scalia and his friends for Citizens United and the flood of money from the rich. Attempts to limit political contributions seem unlikely with the right wing Republicans on our  U.S. Supreme court and the members of Congress who are desperate to be elected to office. Attempts to limit how long political campaigns are allowed I assume would fail under the freedom of speech provisions of the 1st Amendment. So,I recognize that change is highly unlikely, but that doesn't make it any easier to endure.

I don't mean to say that I have joined the Tea Party or adopted it's philosophy of non government, but I am tired of politicians who say and do what they have to in order to get into office. Once elected they often ignore their campaign promises. That's usually because self interest groups have money and they give it to politicians who satisfy their demands. Otherwise honest people abandon their personal ethics and political beliefs to conform to the voices they hear who will influence their re-election. They pander to the far right conservatives and the intolerant religious. They vote to conform to the loudest of those who would make their religious beliefs laws  binding  on all  of us. They listen and vote to satisfy the demands that we close our borders and jail those who they see as illegal residents. They would tell the poor and unemployed they will not get government assistance to survive. They want their elected officials to bar the poor from medical assistance they can't afford. For this group of people, who often think of themselves as very Christian, it's a dog eat dog world and everyone for themselves. For many politicians this is the voice of America they listen to when running  for office.

All of these offensive ideas are most loudly expressed during political campaigns. The noise, the arguments and the personal attacks are wearisome. I wish it were over.