I’m so happy the primaries have moved out of South Carolina that I could do back-flips.

Well…..if I didn’t have a bad knee and back and such….but still…I can say HOOORAY!

I have never met a single one of the candidates in the current Primary Elections, but our telephone lines have been inundated with phone calls from them and their supporters for the last few weeks. I even got one or two on my cell phone!

And it’s not even really the actual person. It’s a recorded message of them speaking.

Robo-calls or whatever those annoying phone calls that come right when you’re sitting down to dinner should be outlawed.

When my husband has just taken a succulent steak off the grill, or the house is full of nice aromatic cooking smells that make my mouth water, I do not want to pick up the phone to a recorded message from anyone. I really don’t want to talk to real people when the alternative is sinking my teeth into a juicy steak after a long day of work, errands, or whatever.

But to pick up an unknown number and to hear a candidate’s recorded voice makes me want to find said candidate and tell him/her to go jump in a lake.

That, of course is impossible, because while the candidates can apparently get anyone’s phone number and address, we, the people who, as tax-payers paying their salaries, are not privy to their contact information.

Oh sure, we can call our legislator’s offices, but I’m thinking if we ask to speak to the person directly, we will be directed to an assistant who’s paid to field calls and then send out a nice generic note on pretty embossed stationary (again paid for by tax-payers) that will thank us for our call.

My husband and I have signed up for the ‘do-not-call’ list, but apparently that doesn’t matter to our legislators or political candidates.

I understand that these people are running for office, and I understand they want our vote. What they don’t seem to understand is that the best way to get it is NOT to aggravate me during my dinner hour.

I hear their speeches and sound-bites on television and on the radio all day long, so I know what their platforms are and if they do or don’t agree with my philosophy.

I do my best to inform myself about the candidates or issues that come up on our ballots. I’ve voted in every single election since I was 18- years-old and on that auspicious day, I even rode my bicycle to the polling place.

With the economy in its pitiful condition today and with unemployment at an all time high, especially in our state, do the candidates really need to be spending money on all these calls, ads, and mailers?

I go to the mailbox and just walk by our recycling bin before going into the house and dump all of the campaign mail. And many times it’s the bulk of our daily mail.

I’d love to see a candidate go on television and say they weren’t going to be doing the calls or sending out mailers and that they would be using that money to do something charitable. Now that’s the person I’d run to the polls to vote for.

Of course, it will never happen because politics is a game, and games have rules that have to be followed or played out.

But, warts and all, America is a great country, and our freedom of speech and choice are a precious commodity a lot of the world does not enjoy. Whatever our political, religious, or lifestyle choices are, barring illegal activities, we are free to live them out, and no one will show up at our homes in the middle of the night and drag us out of bed and off to prison. We can say what we want about our leaders and our views. And every American has the right to voice their opinions and make a choice at the voting polls. And, please, make no mistake about it, that’s the beauty of living in America, and I appreciate it and am grateful for it.

But…I’d still like to enjoy my dinner without the candidates barging in over my phone lines and interrupting my family time with their rhetoric. It will all change when/if they get elected anyway.

I’m just saying…….