An Election Metaphor

Tuesday is a big day for us. Garbage and recycling get picked up on Tuesdays. We put our two large plastic cans out onto the street in the mornings, but the trucks usually come mid-afternoon, one after the other. Every now and again, a truck runs its route on our street early in the morning, so we have learned to anticipate. 

We have a habit of listening for the noise of the trucks and looking out our front windows to know when it is time to drag the empty cans back into the side yard. The street looks ugly lined with large plastic cans and the home owners association can be strict about citing owners who do not pull their cans back promptly. 

This last Tuesday, the trucks were late. Recycling was picked up late in the afternoon. We dragged the can back in. It was getting late and still no garbage pickup.

Now, last Tuesday was also mid-term election day in the U.S.A. Our arterial streets have been increasingly littered with political placards since March. That makes eight months. Political placards are sacred in the U.S.A. In Arizona, for example, defacing or removing a political sign is a class 2 misdemeanor, which can result in up to four months in jail, a $750 fine, and two years of probation.

I thought to myself, maybe the garbage truck is running late because it has so much garbage to pick up. I was hoping that garbage included political signs.  

We went outside in front around dusk and noticed the garbage can had been emptied. We dragged it back. I went to sleep, not wanting to be a part of the tense television dramas reporting on election results. I prefer to wake up in the morning and then read what had happened. That way, I feel a lot less anxiety.

As most of the world now knows, the mid-term election results ended up heavily favoring the Democrat party. I thought to myself, maybe the garbage truck was running late this last Tuesday because it was picking up so much Grifter-in-Chief MAGAt Republican garbage.