I had to unsubscribe!

Do you get frequent emails from your political party, favored candidates and elected officials?

I don’t. Not anymore.

Last year, I signed up for updates from the candidates for Congress. I figured it would be a good way to keep track of the candidates and the issues they felt were important. At first, I got occasional emails, detailing upcoming campaign events and discussions of the issues they were running on.

Soon, I was getting emails from everyone: Democrats, Republicans, candidates, state leaders, federal officials. All of it political, and most of it very helpful. But not for long.

In the past month, I’ve had to “unsubscribe” from most of those email lists. For the exact same reasons:

First, they ask for money. Every. Single. Day. There is never a crisis, a news story, or an event that isn’t turned into a plea for more money, which is necessary to “save our country.”

I hear their concern. Nothing says “politics” like money — and they are always desperate for it. The only thing that can save us from whatever it is we need saving from is a small donation. It’s always a small donation, too ... grassroots, small change, can I spare just $10 or $20 or $50? Neither party likes Big Money in their politics, from what I can gather. It’s always the small donation from the hard-working people in their district that will show the other side that they can’t be bought.

They always talk about the hard-working people. Apparently, both parties are the parties of hard-working people. They rarely mention the average, ordinary people. Just the hard-working ones. Hard-working people can afford to make a small donation, apparently. Maybe average workers can’t?

I guess their strategy works. When I get a mass email that compliments me, personally, as a hard worker, I think to myself, Gosh, the publicist that actually wrote this email must know me pretty well. I am a hard worker. Maybe I should send them some money.

Both parties despise money given to the other side, too. So many emails discuss how the other side’s money come from Hollywood elites, the NRA, the Clintons, or the Kochs. Not our side, though. Our money comes from the People. We’re grassroots.

They all hate the media. Guess who brings up Fox News a lot? Guess who uses the letters MSNBC and CNN as often as possible? You’re right — the other side.

During the campaigns, these emails were helpful to see what the new buzzwords were. Republicans shout loudest about “Nancy Pelosi,” “Radical and Extreme Agenda,” and “Socialism.” Democrats love to demonize “Big Pharma,” “Corporations” and “Sean Hannity.” Buzzwords are carefully tested and formulated to appear as if they were spontaneous, and both parties toss them around like candy at a Labor Day parade. Nothing says effective government like name-calling. By the other side, of course.

Both parties talk about “fighting” a lot. It seems they are doing a lot of “fighting” and not a lot of “leading.” It seems people who are willing to fight no longer are fighting for our country, but fighting those in our country who don’t agree with them. They keep getting the country, if you believe the emails, because they are always fighting to take it back. From the other side, I suppose.

It’s easy to see who is responsible for the deep divisions in this country. It’s the politicians. They love a good division. Demonizing the other side, while apparently taking the high road, keeps them in power.

I suppose my mistake was subscribing to both sides’ email lists. If I had stuck to only one side, I’d know that it is the other side that we are fighting. Now that I am no longer getting any of these emails, I‘m no longer certain whom we are fighting.

Pete Radosevich is the publisher of the Pine Knot News community newspaper and an attorney in Esko who hosts the talk show Harry’s Gang on CAT-7. He can be reached at [email protected].